Some songs become hits. Others become part of movie history.
For Faouze Barkati, that song is “Danza Kuduro.”
The son of Tunisian immigrants, born in Tunis and raised in the Paris suburbs, Barkati has built a remarkable international career that has taken him from the neighborhoods of France to the global entertainment stage, working across music, fashion, television, live entertainment and film.
His story began long before Hollywood. At just 14, Barkati was already organizing parties. By 17, he had entered professional event production, and by 19, he was booking artists and building relationships across the entertainment industry.
His early career also took him into the world of fashion. As a booker for Metropolitan Models, working with Michel Levaton, Barkati managed and booked a significant number of celebrities and personalities. His activities brought him to major international events, including world finals in Beijing, China and Brazil.
At the same time, Barkati was becoming increasingly involved in television and music. He participated in the music of the opening theme of Nice People, the first French reality television show produced by Arthur, adding another important chapter to his early career in the French entertainment industry.
His musical career continued to evolve through major collaborations. Barkati co-wrote “Let’s
Boogie” with DJ Abdel, the theme song of the successful animated series Funky Cops. The series became an international success and was sold in numerous countries, giving Barkati another significant international credit early in his career.
Over the following years, Barkati worked across Europe, Africa, Asia, Russia, the United States and beyond, producing events featuring major international names including Akon, Joe Cocker, Julio Iglesias, Blackstreet, Kool & The Gang and The Temptations.
In 2001, he founded Yanis Records, expanding his activities into production, songwriting and
publishing. Then came Miami.
In 2009, Barkati began developing what would become “Danza Kuduro,” bringing together Don Omar and Lucenzo for a record that would ultimately travel far beyond its original market. Released in 2010, “Danza Kuduro” became a worldwide phenomenon. The track went on to reach audiences across the globe and was prominently featured in Fast Five, introducing the song and Barkati’s work to millions of people worldwide and permanently connecting the record to one of Hollywood’s biggest film franchises.
The connection with Fast Five was particularly significant. The Puerto Rican singer and actor Don Omar, one of the performers of “Danza Kuduro,” also had a prominent role in Fast Five, creating a powerful connection between the song, its performer and the cinematic universe of Fast & Furious.
The worldwide success of “Danza Kuduro” transformed Barkati’s career and propelled his work to an entirely different level.
Credited as author, composer and publisher on the track, Barkati found himself at the intersection of Latin music, European dance culture and Hollywood’s global entertainment machine.
The song had crossed the ultimate border.
From the club to the big screen.
From Europe and Latin America to Hollywood.
And from a successful international record to a piece of global pop culture.
The numbers tell their own story. “Danza Kuduro” became a multi-platinum phenomenon in the United States, with a 115X Platinum certification associated with the record, a striking testament to the song’s extraordinary reach and longevity. But for Barkati, “Danza Kuduro” was never the final destination. It was the beginning of a much bigger international strategy.
FROM DUBAI TO THE WORLD
Today, Barkati lives in Dubai, from where he continues to develop international deals and
entertainment projects across multiple markets.
His business is worldwide, with relationships and opportunities spanning Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, Latin America and the United States.
While Barkati does not live in Hollywood, he maintains a strategic presence in Los Angeles
through his collaboration with Fabrice Sopoglian, CEO of Focused Artists Management.
Through this partnership, Barkati has a dedicated base within the Hollywood entertainment
ecosystem while continuing to operate internationally from Dubai.
The strategy is consistent with the career he has built for decades: connecting markets that
traditionally operate separately.
Africa. Europe. The Middle East. Latin America. The United States.
Music. Film. Television. Talent. Entertainment.
FROM MUSIC INTO FILM
For Barkati, the next chapter is no longer limited to music.
Together with his longtime friend and trusted partner Moore Belhadj, Barkati is expanding into film and audiovisual production, developing a new slate of films, documentaries and large-scale entertainment projects with international partners.
Their collaboration is rooted in a friendship that goes back many years, but today it is evolving into a broader creative and business partnership, with a shared ambition to develop projects capable of connecting North Africa with the international entertainment industry.
One of their most ambitious initiatives is taking shape in southern Tunisia, around a region
whose landscapes have become synonymous with cinematic history and the fictional planet of Tatooine.
The vision of Barkati and Belhadj is to build upon this extraordinary cinematic heritage by combining tourism development, international film and television production, audiovisual infrastructure and a major international festival bringing together personalities from the worlds of music and cinema.
The region already possesses an extraordinary connection to Hollywood and international
cinema. The landscapes around Matmata, Tozeur and Nefta were used as filming locations for several installments of the Star Wars saga, beginning with the original film in 1976 and
continuing through The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
The same part of southern Tunisia also became a backdrop for major productions including
Raiders of the Lost Ark and Monty Python’s Life of Brian, giving the region a cinematic legacy shared by very few locations anywhere in the world.
Rather than simply looking back at that history, Barkati and Belhadj want to build upon it.
Their vision is to transform the region’s existing cinematic identity into a new international
destination for tourism, film production and entertainment, creating new opportunities for local talent while attracting international productions and industry professionals.
At the heart of the project is also the ambition to create an international festival that would bring together major names from the music, film and entertainment industries, positioning southern Tunisia as a new meeting point between Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Hollywood.
Barkati and Belhadj are developing their film and documentary projects in close collaboration with Fabrice Sopoglian and Focused Artists Management, strengthening the connection between Tunisia, Dubai, Europe and the Hollywood entertainment ecosystem.
For Barkati, whose career has always been defined by making music, talent and entertainment travel across borders, the move into cinema feels less like a reinvention than the natural evolution of everything he has built.
From the Paris suburbs to the international stage, from fashion and television to music and
“Danza Kuduro,” from Dubai to Los Angeles and markets around the world, Faouze Barkati has spent decades building bridges between cultures and industries.
Now, alongside his longtime friend Moore Belhadj, he is bringing that same international vision to cinema.
“Danza Kuduro” put his name on the global map.
The soundtrack was only the beginning.
Follow Faouze Barkati on Instagram: @faouzebarkati
