Henna (song)


"Henna" is a song by Swedish pop artist of Iranian origin Cameron Cartio featuring the raï Algerian singer Khaled. Music was composed by Alex Papaconstantinou to lyrics by Khaled and Cameron Cartio in Persian language. The song was produced by Alex Papaconstantinou and mastered at Cutting Room in Stockholm.
The song was from the debut album of Cameron Cartio entitled Borderless. Khaled's involvement began after Cameron ended his relationship with his girlfriend, who was a devoted Khaled fan. Cartio, an aspiring and relatively obscure artist at the time, penned the lyrics in his own constructed language and sent them to Khaled. Impressed, Khaled agreed to contribute his own part as a tribute to Cartio's former girlfriend.
The song was released on Sony/BMG and Universal and for the Arab World on EMI Arabia. In addition to popularity in Sweden and throughout the Iranian diaspora, the song became hugely popular in the Arab World basically because of the involvement of Khaled in the Arab diaspora.

Track list

Original 2005 release in Sweden
  1. Henna
  2. Henna
2006 release in Sweden
  1. Henna featuring Khaled
  2. Henna featuring Khaled
Khaled appeared with courtesy of Universal where he was signed

Spanish version

As had happened with his earlier 2005 hit "Roma", Cameron Cartio released a Spanish language version of "Henna" featuring Khaled in Spain with the Cartio conlang being replaced by Spanish, although the Khaled verses in Arabic were kept the same.
A music video with the Spanish lyrics was released by Cameron's brother Alec Cartio. In addition to the new Spanish version, the 4-track maxi CD included separately the original conlang version and also two remixes by Ferrero.
Track list of the Spain release
  1. Henna featuring Khaled
  2. Henna featuring Khaled
  3. Henna featuring Khaled
  4. Henna featuring Khaled

In popular culture

Cartio and Khaled were invited to perform the song at the 2006 European Athletics Championships held in August 2006 in Gothenburg, Sweden. They performed the song live in the opening ceremonies to the games on 7 August 2006, also broadcast live internationally via the Swedish television station SVT.