New booking agency Zagareet launches to spotlight distinctive artists across Asia

A new artist booking agency, Zagareet, has launched with a focus on connecting distinctive electronic artists with audiences across Asia.

Founded by Shereen Jolly and Nikola Skočajić, the project blends artist representation with a curatorial approach shaped by the founders’ experience within underground club networks across the region.

The name references a traditional vocal expression heard across the Middle East and North Africa.

As Jolly explains to Mixmag Asia: “A Zagareet, also spelt as Zaghareet or Zaghrouta (plural) is a long, high-pitched wavering vocalisation made by Middle Eastern and North African women in moments of joy and celebration. It's voiced by moving the tongue rapidly while pushing air past the vocal cords, creating a loud, trilling, rhythmic cry. It’s a really beautiful sound.”

The connection to the name came from the dancefloor. “For years, I was completely unaware of this tradition, and I'd been doing a very amateurish version of this sound on the dancefloor to show appreciation for music and DJs I loved,” Jolly shares.

When a Syrian friend later explained the cultural origins of the sound, the founders realised the name captured something personal about their shared club experiences.

“As we laughed over the coincidence, we realised it was the perfect name to pay tribute to the originators of a sound that had brought us so much joy on the dancefloor for so many years,” she adds.

Zagareet will launch its first event on March 13 with Black Merlin and Yadin Moha; artists whose sound both sit slightly outside standard club programming.

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The agency itself grew out of the founders’ informal work connecting artists and promoters across the region. Through those exchanges, they began to notice recurring gaps in how artists were being supported and booked.

“In our friendship group here in Asia, we feel like there are so many DJs and artists with a really unique voice who simply don’t have the right infrastructure around them yet, whether that’s because they’re not really into the social media and networking side of things, or just because no one has connected the dots for them yet,” the founders share.

At the same time, many established artists remain relatively absent from Asian touring circuits.

“On the other hand, there are artists with a serious global reputation who just haven’t had much exposure in Asian markets. We’re trying to bridge those gaps.”

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For Zagareet, the challenge often lies in context rather than audience appetite.

Explaining this, both Jolly and Skočajić share: “Some of these artists might get perceived as too niche, but having seen them work a room firsthand, we really don’t think that’s the case.”

They add: “The main thing is getting them into the right rooms with the right crowd. Agents based in Europe are understandably not always savvy to how that works here, so we try to come in with the knowledge we have on the ground and make those right connections happen.”

Follow Zagareet on Instagram here.

Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.

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