This gives a nice cross-section of some famous artists over time, from recent songs to more classic ones: my favourites are Ya Glebey, Herihtak, and Ana Bashak El Bahr.

Natacha Atlas is a favourite artist of mine, and her work is extremely popular with bellydancers! This is a good early album, and you'll find tracks such as Marifnaash and Kidda showing up on lots of other compilations. Amulet is one of my stock pieces.

A nice introduction to North African music - I love N'Touma and Hagda.

Absolutely brilliant live album, with three of the biggest vocalists in rai and one of Middle Eastern music’s biggest instrumental stars on percussion. Favourite tracks are Khalliouni, Eray, and especially Abdel Kader - eight years after I first heard the song, it still gives me the shivers!

The title might be overstating the case a little, but it is good value for money! The first three songs are all classics, as is Nezlen Ala El Boustan. Cheb Mami's insanely bouncy Le Rai C'est Chic is one of those songs that everyone either loves or hates with a passion - either way, worth a listen!

The Bellydance Superstars compilations tend to have great quality songs, but their favourites get very overplayed - if you pick one for a show, be prepared to find somebody else dancing to the same tune! However, this is still worth it just for listening to. Ice Queen and Raks Africa are amazing pieces, and Talakik is ridiculously catchy (be warned – it’ll stay in your head for days).

One of the best compilations I've bought. Very modern, nontraditional music - I really like La Muchacha Turka, the Spanish version of Tarkan's famous Sikidim (that "kiss kiss" song!), as well as Salla and Kim Dedi. Ya Saryan has somewhat disturbing lyrics, and Un Ange en Paix is a remixed version that falls short of the original, but in general there's a lot of great stuff here.