Hayat Selim

Hayat Selim is an Egyptian London based film music composer, singer-songwriter and voice recording artist. In 2014 she completed a Bachelor of Science in digital media engineering and technology in Cairo, Egypt, in parallel with private studies in singing and composition.

 

Hayat worked in the Egyptian indie game industry and performance scene until 2017 when she moved from Cairo to the United Kingdom on a scholarship to do her masters in composition for screen at the Royal College of Music, London, supported by the Royal College of Music, Henry Wood Accommodation Trust and Noel Coward Foundation; graduating in 2019. 

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During her masters, Hayat studied with Emmy-nominated composer Maurizio Malagnini, Enrica Sciandrone and Howard Davidson.

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Hayat’s compositional work varies from game and film music, to advertisement and her solo song stage project in various genres mainly fusing Western cinematic sound with world music influences, soundscapes and voice. 

 

In 2018 Hayat was profiled in Meagan Marie’s book Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play for her work in the Indie gaming industry in Egypt and her soundtrack The Great Red Spot was broadcast on BBC 3 Radio's Late Junction show for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. Hayat's original song and composition Mirage for the short film by Lena Srinivasan was nominated in the ‘Best Song’ category of the Jerry Goldsmith Awards 2019 which opened doors in ethnic singing.

 

In 2020 Hayat was commissioned by Dynamedion to be the featured singer and composer of Sonuscore and Steinberg’s Ethnic Vocal Phrases virtual instrument library and has sung on various video games and films since including Age of Empires IV, Chivalry 2 and Hollywood's The Forgiven starring Ralphe Fiennes. Her most recent compositional work includes music for the Grand Egyptian Museum, due to open in 2024 and a TV series due out in the same year.

 

In 2023 Hayat was selected to be the Arabic and Armaic singer on Karl Jenkins’ Stabat Mater, following the footsteps of the original singer of the work Belinda Sykes.

 

Hayat’s orchestral EP song album Sweat On My Forehead will be released in early 2024.