Gaza Youth Sing For Peace: Watar Band- Dawsha- Gaza Sings For Peace- Mohammad Assaf- The Gazans' Impression on Music- Julia Butros- The Palestinian Unit & More…
By Ziad Bakri - December 06, 2013
GAZA
YOUTH SING FOR PEACE:
Watar
Band- Dawsha- Gaza Sings For Peace- Mohammad Assaf- The Gazans'
Impression on Music- Julia Butros- The Palestinian Unit & More…
Impression on Music- Julia Butros- The Palestinian Unit & More…
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| Gaza Singing For Peace Group |
Gaza's name has always been connected to the war, electricity cut, occupation and many other crises. It is rare for anyone to get the chance of seeing the positive and beautiful things in it. Like a beautiful strong flower finding its way through the rocks, a group of Palestinian youth sang for peace in Gaza, an attempt that was very surprisingly successful and welcomed.
Gaza sings for Peace is a project
funded by the Swedish municipality, the period of the project was 4 months and
it ended with two concerts that were attended by 500, 750 spectators
respectively.
For some of these young guys and
girls, this was their first experience with music, but the others have been
trying for years to achieve their music-related dreams, succeeding sometimes
and failing in others.
In this feature, four of them will
speak about everything: their lives, music, experience with Gaza sings for
peace, previous experiences, the way society looks at them and their future
hopes and dreams.
Mariam Abu Amer:
"My story with music began last
year, after a big dream of mine was destroyed. I applied for a scholarship to
go to Britain to get my bachelor degree and I was among the five finalists,
they were very interested in me, they even paid for the exams that I was
supposed to take. For six months, I changed my life completely, I turned
everything around me to be 'Britain-like'… I was able to actually taste my own
dream. Unfortunately, I was the only one unable to go…. I was crushed,
devastated and depressed for long three months.
A girl that I know called me to tell
me about the new project, Gaza Sings for Peace, I got really excited and
decided to go. The only people who knew about me going were my brothers and
friends who have always been supportive of every decision I take, I did not
tell anyone else because I knew they would refuse."
Mariam, who is 20 years old and studying in University of Palestine now, was
so passionate about every word she was saying, she continued while eating her
breakfast and mentioning how much she loves food!!
"We used to train every day, and
despite the hard work, I became more
enthusiastic and full of life, I completely forgot about my depression for not
traveling to London, I started to study harder, attend more lectures in my
university in Gaza …music became my medicine,
I started to love Gaza again!!
I learned how to use the different
levels of my voice, I was introduced to singing a new type of music, which is
Jazz, it was a nontraditional experience that changed my whole life. In
addition to that, I met a lot of people, made many friends and became happy.
People from inside and outside Gaza
were impressed by the two concerts that we did. Here in Gaza, a lot of people
think that singing is only about dancing and showing your body, they never
think of singing for peace and humanitarian issues. I hope that through this
project, some of them have changed their idea about music.. and people started
recognizing me after the concerts!!"
When asking Mariam about Mohammad
Assaf, she said: "I am very proud of Assaf, we reached a period where
people stopped considering Gaza as a part of Palestine, he helped shedding a
light on Gaza again. In the past, he was famous in the university, but now he
is very famous among all Arab people."
Mariam volunteers a lot with
humanitarian organizations. She likes reading books, especially the spiritual
ones, her favorite writers are Paulo Cohello and Alaa Aswani. Her favorite
singers/bands are: Steven Wilson, Linkin Park, Mashrou' Laila and Muse.
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| Mariam Abu Amer (second from the left) |
Alaa shublaq:
"My
story with music is almost six years old, in 2008, singing was not an idea for
me to think of, it was just a hobby and passion that I had. What helped me is
meeting people who have the same interest in music, including Khamis Abu
Shaban, we simply shared our love of music. We started practicing our hobby and
we formed our group which is known now as the WATAR BAND, we never thought that
one day we will be singing in front of actual audience!!
Right
now we are six members in the group, we complete each others, and being the
lead singer does not mean that I am more famous than them. We either succeed as
a team or never do. Our friendship is very strong.
Gaza
has a lot of talented people, but unfortunately, there are no organizations to
help and support them. When we started, no one helped, we had to pay from our
own money to buy the instruments and we depended on ourselves to learn playing
the music.
In
addition to that, the Arabic media in general focuses on the negativities,
unlike the European/foreigner one which shows everything.
I
believe that people form their opinions by the work you present, since we
started, we have focused on the social and humanitarian issues that reflect our
own society. Many people ask us to sing in restaurants, but we refuse, we want
to get a better focus on the message we are trying to send. It is a matter of
principle.
DAWSHA
is our first official clip, it is a social song that discusses the effect of
the revolutions on the Arab young guys who feel that they have no clear future,
no ambitions and living in a state of depression… but they always have hope because of God.
Having
our own songs means a lot to us, but still we like to do covers, we add our own
touch to the song before we re-sing it. You can watch our songs on our Youtube
channel.
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| Khamis Abu Shaban (middle) & Alaa Shublaq (right) |
Alaa
, 23 years old, graduated and works in a production company and as an administrator
says about his experience with Gaza Sings For Peace: " It was a great
experience, we learned a lot of things related to music notes and Coral
singing… we were overwhelmed by the
hundreds of people who attended the two concerts in Gaza… By the way, we were
supposed to have another two concerts in Ramallah and Jerusalem, but we were not able to get the
permission to go there. After the two concerts, many people contacted me
through my social media pages, they even stop me in the street to ask for my
signature!!!"
About
Mohammad Assaf he says:" Mohammad was a talented person who did not get
his proper chance in Gaza, but when he participated in the program, he became
very famous. He helped us get more attention on Gaza and the art in it, he is
wonderful."
Alaa
loves listening to Majida Al Roomi, and he hopes to continue his master degree
and finish the album he and his band are working on.
Sarah Abu Ramadan:
"Before
Gaza Sings For Peace, I used to only sing in front of my family and friends.
This project gave me self confidence and helped me to gain many new
friendships. The whole experience was new, new type of music and new
information. Now, I know how to sing!
When
I was young, I used to practice Dabka (a folkloric dance), but it was not an
accepted idea for a girl to do so in our society, some people used to think of
her as a bad girl. My family has always been supportive of me in any step I take,
whether it is Dabka or Gaza Sings for Peace.
Sara,
who is 21 years old and graduated from Gaza
University, loves studying languages like French and listening to Majida
Al Roomi songs. She is looking forward to taking her master degree.
Khamis Abu Shaban:
"My
family has always been supportive of my talent, they always come and attend the
concerts I participate in, but some of my friends who are conservative, got
away from me after I started singing, now I never see them!"
This
was Khamis Abu Shaban's answer, Khamis who is 23 years old and a graduate from
the Islamic University where he studied Banking and Financial Sciences and working as an administrator in the music
school
Khamis
continues:"But in general, I have never got negative criticism, the image
that people have of your work depends on you and your work.
Talented
people face many problems these days. First, there is an artists' union in
Gaza, but it is not active at all, we just have a membership there but do
nothing. Second, the talented people have so little chances of developing
themselves.
I
remember when we- Watar Band- wanted to record any song, the people at the
studio would tell us that our work is amazing, but they would ask for a lot of
money, they wouldn't be punctual and they deal with us as if we were nobodies!
Khamis
explains about his experience with Gaza singing for peace:"It was a privilege
for me to be a part of this experience. Even though I play many instruments
like guitar, piano, violen,etc. I have never tried singing, but the fact that
this experience was completely new encouraged me to get into a new field.
After
Gaza sings for peace and our first clip Dawsha, People started stopping me and
telling me how much they love m e and they ask us to sing for them. Not only
that, but also we were overwhelmed when
Julia Butros, shared our clip!!! We really appreciate it."
When
I asked Khamis about the competition between singing bands in Gaza, his answer
was surprising, he said:" We all help each others. In fact, we formed a
new group called the Palestinian Unit, which represents the cooperation between
us and two other groups, the Black Unit and Palestinian Rappers. It is very
important for all of us to support each other and what matters is the quality
of the work that we do."
Khamis
will be working on the new album of Watar Band during the next six months.
Trailer
of Singing For Peace: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Wg-P6v1Co&feature=youtu.be
Dawsha
Clip : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4AniwZvFSg
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| Left to right: Mariam, Khamis, Alaa, Ziad (the interviewer) & Sara |
