The song is from a Lebanese singer of the 80s named Richard Milan, and the belly dancer in the photo is Samia Gamal. No information about the artist exists online.

As with any dance of folkloric origin, the roots of belly dance are uncertain.

One theory claims that belly dancing was originally from Ancient Babylon in southern Iraq. Adnanite Arabs introduced belly dancing and drumming. Before the arrival of Islam the tradition was for women to dance at social gatherings, while the men played the drums. After the Arrival of Islam, belly dancing was banned. During the Ummayad and the Abbasid dynasties, belly dancing was commercially promoted. Local poor women and, later on, slaves from other parts of the world, especially Persia, India and North Africa learned to belly dance to entertain rich men.During the time of the Abbasid and the Fatimid dynasties, the Arabs settled in Egypt. Egyptians adopted the dance and it became part of Egyptian tradition.

Another theory is that belly dancing is a reworking of movements traditionally utilized to demonstrate or ease childbirth, and was used by women for that purpose. There are numerous oral historical references, backed by commentary in The Dancer of Shamahka. This particularly relates to a sub-set of dance movements found in modern raqs sharqi.