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Singer-songwriters for Palestine
December 02, 20148:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
8:00 p.m.
SOLD OUT. Tickets: 5 euros for tickets at the box office
Tickets not been sold online will be put on sale one hour before the concert and the Casa Árabe Auditorium door for the price of 5 euros, and 4 euros for the officially unemployed, Language Center students and Youth Card holders. You must demonstrate your status by showing the proper document to receive the discount. Assigned seats with tickets.
Performances by NaVil, Najla Shami and Marwan. Before the concert, there will be a showing of clothing forming part of Palestine’s cultural heritage
On the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Casa Árabe and the Diplomatic Mission of Palestine in Spain have organized an evening called “Palestine: Fabric of Culture and Voices,” which includes a showing of traditional Palestinian clothing and a concert by singer-songwriters.
Palestine’s heritage in textiles
This is a display of clothing which will make it possible to discover the immense ethnographic wealth of historical Palestine through its traditional clothing, thanks to the Palestinian Heritage Center. For the first time ever, this center, with headquarters in the city of Bethlehem, under the direction of Maha Aburruman Saca, is bringing to Casa Árabe a wardrobe display which represents Palestine’s different regions. They have become a symbol of the cultural identity of the Palestinian people.
Singer/songwriters for Palestine
After the clothing display, a special concert will be held, given by three performers of Palestinian origin with unstoppable careers behind them; three voices from our country, whose musical repertoire always bears the presence of the land of their forefathers and the Palestinian culture to which they pay homage. These musicians are:
NaVil, from Haifa and Acre to Barcelona
Najla Shami, from Tulkarem and Ramallah to Santiago de Compostela
Marwan, from Tulkarem to Madrid
NaVil composes, arranges and sings songs in Arabic, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and English about the Palestinian people, their history, their wounds and pains, but also about their hope for a better life, their struggle against occupation and their search for a future without discrimination. The son of Palestinians from Haifa and Acre, but born and raised in Spain, NaVil considers himself to be completely Palestinian, because “to live life, you have to look forward, but if you want to understand life, you have to look back.” To him, his album, Del río al mar, de Norte a Sur (From the River to the Sea, from North to South) means “claiming a historical Palestine in which no person is superior or inferior to any other person because of the color of their skin, their ideology or their religion. It is a search for peace based on Justice, and not on imposed, unacceptable submission.”
A vocalist and composer who is the daughter of two cultures, those of Palestine and Galicia, her voice is a melting pot of sounds influenced by styles such as jazz, Brazilian, Eastern and African music, and traditional music from Galicia. She just published Na lingua que eu falo (In the Language That I Speak, Galaxia, 2013), a work in which the author delves deeper into the work of poet Rosalía de Castro. She is accompanied by the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist of Lebanese origin, Sergio Tannus.
Thanks to word-of-mouth, Marwan has managed to become one of the best-known singer-songwriters on the concert circuit in Spain. The Marwan phenomenon has done nothing but grow, as demonstrated by the full-house he brought in last July at the Teatro Circo Price in Madrid, as part of the prestigious Veranos de la Villa concert series. His career began at the age of 15, when he bought his first guitar to play along with his friends, allowing himself to become greatly influenced by various singer-songwriters of the 1990’s generation, including Ismael Serrano, Tontxu and Carlos Chaouen, though also by many of the greats, including Serrat, Silvio Rodríguez, Sabina, etc.
According to Marwan, the key to his success lies in the fact that “when people identify with what you sing, the personal shifts into the domain of the universal.” The truth is that the universal nature of the private matters to which he refers when he speaks, coupled with the omnipresent Internet and a great deal of hard work, also as a poet (he is the author of La triste historia de tu cuerpo sobre el mío/The Sad Story of Your Body Over Mine) has unleashed the musical phenomenon that Marwan has become. He is currently recording his upcoming album, which has the title Apuntes sobre mi paso por el invierno (Notes on My Passage Through Winter). It will consist of a book and album that he has published and produced himself.