Country Road

Canadian Singer-Songwriter Ali Hugo’s love for country music is no secrete. First, there’s the country-oriented tune “You’ll find love” with its thumping banjo from Hugo’s Time Machine EP. To help promote the release of that single on country radio in 2018 in North America, Hugo supported the song by publishing a short story also titled “You’ll find love.” That strategy worked, and the music was a hit, especially in Oklahoma, USA. Next came “Trust in Allah,” one of the singles from Hugo’s album “Hope for the Meek.”
“Trust in Allah” is an Islamic Qasida in the genre of Country Music and not what you would expect to hear on your Anghami music app in the Middle East. However, fans from Mauritania in North Africa to the Persian Gulf shores responded positively to that song’s country music vibes. In his latest release, “Easy to Say, Hard to Do,” which has already generated a strong buzz in Alabama (the latest of the North American states and provinces to be part of Ali Hugo’s fan base), Hugo is promoting his songwriting efforts, rather than promoting himself as a country singer. Before the song’s release, Hugo published a TikTok video showing-off his country vocal abilities by covering Loggins & Messina’s “Watching the river run.” With “Easy to Say, Hard to Do,” “ I’m trying to tell the folks in the country music business that this is a great song in the style of 70’s country music, and I’m available for business as a country songwriter” says Hugo. Hugo is not oblivious to critics who question, “who is this guy who comes out of nowhere and thinks he can make music which has a long line of tradition held up by the likes of Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Randy Travis, Reba McIntyre & Paul Brandt to name but a few? But the reality on the ground remains that country music has gone Global. Suppose the North American artists are not interested in the international market and prefer to view country music as a national treasure, n that case, one can’t blame artists with a global following like Ali Hugo who wants to carry the torch of country music Globally one song at a time. “I’m doing the songs which I think my fans would love, and so far, fans both in North America and Globally love the new music,” says Hugo. Hugo is back in the studio working on Afrodisiac, his upcoming Swahili language EP.