Emirati soul singer Hamdan Abri has spent more than two decades carving out a professional music career in the UAE, balancing commercial work with creative projects largely built from the ground up. Over the years he has co-founded several bands and become known as a versatile collaborator across soul, funk, R&B and psychedelic rock.

His latest project, Abri and The Everlasting, released its debut album The Healing in September, the product of five years of work. The 10-track record blends soul, psychedelic rock, funk and reggae, grappling with pandemic-era themes and the pull back toward human connection. The band — featuring bassist Steven Bedford, drummer Ratish Chadha and guitarist Jerome Deligero — launched the album with a concert at Sabaa Events Space in Dubai.

Abri's career has had its share of milestones: his 2011 track "(Re)birth," from a self-titled EP, was featured in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; he has opened for Sade and Erykah Badu; and in 2014 he shared a stage with jazz legend Herbie Hancock at the Abu Dhabi Festival. Earlier chapters of his career included the Hamdan Abri band, Abri and Funk Radius, and Abri and The Dreamfleet.

Reflecting on what's kept him going, Abri says the key is simply "to keep things moving," crediting collaboration with helping him push through creative blocks. He points to newer artists like Tasty Biscuits as proof that musicians today have to build their own platforms rather than wait to be discovered. Working alongside Hancock, he says, taught him to "relax and trust" his collaborators rather than tightly control every creative decision. That shift shows up directly on the new album's track "Nothing Left to Prove" — a fitting title for a musician who, two decades in, says he no longer feels the need to prove himself to family, peers or the industry, and is instead focused on continuing to grow.