JERUSALN.- He singer Palestinian pop star Bashar Murad dreamed of participating in Eurovis. The thirty-year-old participated in the qualifiers to represent Iceland, but narrowly failed.
“I am a pop artist and Eurovision is like the Olympic Games of pop,” Murad told AFP.
When embarking on this adventure, the artist was showered with a multitude of criticism from people who considered that behind his candidacy there were more political than artistic motivations.
“Those who criticize me have not even heard my music, they only saw that I am Palestinian,” lamented the performer, son of the founder of the famous Palestinian music group Sabreen.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which has been shaking the Gaza Strip for seven months, crept into the popular music competition this year. Thousands of protesters demanded that the candidate from Israel be excluded, a country where she has participated in this festival since 1973 and where she achieved victory four times.
Murad assured that he had dreamed of this contest for a long time, even before the war.
He presented his song to the Icelandic committee in August 2023 and two months later, October 7 arrived, and everyone went crazy, he recalled, referring to the day of the attack by Hamas militiamen in southern Israel, which left more of 1,170 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Murad made it to the final round of the qualifiers in Iceland, but did not win.
Preparation of the singer
The Palestinian does not have Icelandic nationality, but his choice was not made at random. He knows the members of Hatari, the Icelandic techno group that participated in the 2019 edition in Tel Aviv and caused a stir by waving scarves with the flag. Palestine.
Thanks to the band’s drummer and producer, Einar Stefansson, Murad learned that to represent Iceland he did not need to be a citizen of that country. The only requirement was to sing in islands during the semifinals.
However, the interpreter admitted that with his candidacy he also hoped to show the numerous obstacles that Palestinian artists must overcome.
“As a Palestinian, I don’t have the luxury of choosing whether I want to be political or not with my songs,” he explained, denouncing that the public tends to see his Palestinian identity first and foremost, which does not happen with artists of other origins.
“I would like to be able to sing about more universal topics than the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories,” he said, although this topic was not mentioned in his song.
“But it’s the reality I was born into. And it’s the filter through which I see the world,” he explained.
Murad lives in his father’s music studio in East Jerusalem, a sector annexed by Israel since 1967 and an area of conflict over land between Palestinians and Israelis.
He says he feels the weight of the expectations placed on him by Palestinians, but remembers that he represents only one Palestinian experience among many others.
FUENTE: AFP
