Palestinian artist Saint Levant debuts in Portugal in December

O concert is part of the international tour of Saint Levant, “Layali Al Afandi”, “inspired in the golden age of Levante cabarets in the 1990s”, adds the promoter.

Saint Levant was born in Jerusalem, the son of a French-Argelian mother and a Serbian-Palestinian father, and spent his childhood in Gaza, an experience that would inspire his debut EP, "From Gaza, With Love", published in 2023, which preceded his first album, "Deira", published in 2024.

The musician combines influences of traditional Arabic music with R&B and hip-hop, assuming “the plurality of his cultural heritage, the Arab community scattered around the world and the Palestinian struggle in the diaspora”, according to the concert presentation.

When the tour took place in Melbourne, Australia last June, the British newspaper The Guardian pointed out that Saint Levant “sings and rhymes in Arabic, English and French in a soft ‘R&B’ pop that mixes the ‘vintage’ aesthetics and the modern influences of Raï music in North Africa.”.

Saint Levant’s music “could remain apolitical in terms of content,” but “Gaza is still occupied by Israel, which continues the devastation,” so although her songs incorporate “the escape of pop music, they also reflect the darker realities,” The Guardian wrote.

In Melbourne, the British newspaper reporter reported on the beginning of the concert with “On This Land”, a song inspired by a video recorded after October 7, 2023, by journalists in Gaza singing “Sawfa Nabqa Hawa”, an Arab Spring anthem, and by “subtle and explicit” appeals he made during his performance, solidarity between Arab nations and oppressed peoples globally.

The Guardian reporter has in any case “a dark atmosphere” at the concert in Australia, since Saint Levant “plays even his most political songs with the casual will of a gallant”.

At the end of a performance that included own songs, Lebanese classics and even George Michael’s ‘covers’ and a ‘remix’ of Shakira, Saint Levant was accompanied by a DJ, who The Guardian revealed to be the musician’s father, “the architect and former owner of the Al Deira hotel in Gaza, bombarded and destroyed by Israeli forces.”.

Saint Levant’s songs “conquered a global audience,” says prosecutor Last Tour today, stressing the release of the debut album, ‘Deira’, “a project that established the emotional and sound bases of the musician’s artistic universe, extending its influence, both in fashion and in culture in general, “to a generation that is redefining Arabic art in its own terms, guided by an unwavering sense of identity”.

Saint Levant’s concert, “inspired by the golden age of the Levante cabarets of the 1990s – a period marked by elegance, carefree optimism and a unique sophistication in fashion and music, which helped shape contemporary Arab popular culture – is conceived as a narrative experience that takes place on a cinematic journey through the atmosphere, rituals and emotional universe of that era,” describes the Last Tour.

“Meeting music, scenography and narrative”, the concert “recreated the glamour of Beirut’s legendary nightlife, while evoking the cultural memory that this period left throughout the Arab world”.

The tour of Saint Levant passes through cities in the United States and Canada, France, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Italy and Spain, before arriving in Lisbon, and then to Morocco, Greece, Turkey and Oman, according to the musician’s website.

Tickets for the concert in Lisbon are available at Lasttour.org/en and Feverup.com.