Bashar Murad, The rise of Palestinian pop

Musicians from the territories are making a big noise – which is all the more remarkable given the obstacles they have overcome to get their work heard, writes William Ralston.

William Ralston

bbc.com

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Growing up in East Jerusalem, Bashar Murad turned to music for comfort in a life blighted by fractious political realities and the emotional pressures of being a gay man battling the conservative elements of his society. It also became a way of transcending the borders imposed on his life by the Israeli occupation; a medium to connect with the world outside. He started with covers of western pop before releasing his own songs, some in Arabic and some in English – invariably with catchy hooks, bold, self-produced videos, and satirical lyrics addressing freedom of expression.



In 2009, Bashar began sharing his music on Facebook and uploading it to YouTube and Soundcloud. Soon after, he added it to Spotify but struggled to find a local audience because the platform was only accessible to Palestinians registered in foreign markets using a virtual private network (VPN). The absence of a Middle Eastern ‘hub’ – one of Spotify’s online spaces highlighting music communities through curated playlists and editorial – also meant that Bashar’s music was not being discovered overseas.

As a westerner, you hear the phrase ‘Arab music’ and you think of something you heard 40 years ago, but that’s not accurate anymore – Larry LeBlanc

Yet a decade on, Murad’s work now has global traction. In April, he performed at Palestine Music Expo (PMX) in Ramallah, in the West Bank, the larger of the two Palestinian territories that includes East Jerusalem. He then flew to Toronto for Canadian Music Week, where he represented the Palestinian territories for the first time in the annual event’s 36-year history, alongside Kallemi, a Swiss-Palestinian all-female hip-hop outfit. More recently, Murad collaborated with Icelandic techno group Hatari, and their video has been viewed over 1 million times online. He’s in talks with several labels about his debut album.
Murad’s success is part of a much bigger jigsaw. If you look carefully at festival line-ups, label release schedules, and agency rosters, Palestinian artists from various genres are appearing more regularly, which is remarkable given the singular challenges they face.
While Murad, a pop act in the traditional sense, performed in Canada, TootArd, a psych-rock sensation in the Middle East, were preparing to play at Glastonbury. Late last year, Oud masters Le Trio Joubran released their latest album through UK label Cooking Vinyl, and followed it with a performance at The Barbican in London. Sama, the first Palestinian DJ to emerge internationally, recently released a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix.

I’d always imagined doing the things I am doing now, but I didn’t think it was possible because there were no resources – Bashar Murad

The landscape for Palestinian music, and, indeed, Arabic music as a whole, is richer than it’s ever been. Larry LeBlanc, a leading Canadian music journalist and international consultant to PMX, tells BBC Culture: “As a westerner, you hear [the phrase] ‘Arab music’ and you think of something you heard 40 years ago, but that’s not accurate any more. This is commercial music, and it’s extremely exportable.” This would seem to have been behind Spotify’s decision to become the first major streaming service to launch in the region last year.
“I’d always imagined doing the things I am doing now, but I didn’t think it was possible because there were no resources,” Murad says. “But I think Palestinian musicians are figuring out how to get our voices out to the international world.” [.................................]READ MORE

Culture - The rise of Palestinian pop - BBC