Palestine Hosts Egyptian Singer

The Palestine International Festival for Dance and Music held its closing ceremony which featured the famed Egyptian singer Eman Al Bahr Darwish. The festival concluded its 13th year with Mr. Darwish performing songs with an emotional revolutionary zeal.

Mr. Dawrish inherited his beautiful voice and talent from his grandfather the well-known artist Sayed Darwish. The singer performed his grandfather’s popular songs as a tribute to him.

The Egyptian singer was in a victorious mood at the concert, which was unlike any other concert. It marked a return to his under-the-spot life after more than 20 years of being away. Mr. Darwish says he was excluded for his refusal to sing in front of the former regime and his commitment to the values he inherited from his grandfather.

Eman Al Bahr Darwish: “I was born in this house and I know very well that when you sing you don’t sing for an individual, you sing for something immortal, like your country. You sing for what people feel. I think this was unacceptable for me in the past period. I was not covered by media. Some said that I stopped singing. And people may have difficulty believing this but my concerts were not covered although they were fully packed during a short period of time. This didn’t happen to me even when I was the number-one singer in Egypt in the past. Not a single word was written about these concerts. Why was that? I knew that after the revolution but not before.”


Monitors of the Palestine International Festival measure the festival’s success by the large audience it manages to attract.

The festival has failed to solve the ongoing political conflict among Arab singers who refuse to sing in Palestine under occupation or want to avoid passing through Israeli-controlled border checkpoints and enter with Israeli permits.


Speaker:
Eman Al Bahr Darwish-Famed Egyptian Singer

Voice:
Mourad Kirche

Adaptation by: Shounaz Mekky