Smoldering Middle Eastern pop with a courageous social message

September 17, 2019—One of the Middle East's most important rock bands comes to Dartmouth for a concert of rousing electro-pop, smoldering vocals, and lyrics that courageously address modern Middle Eastern social issues.

Mashrou' Leila performs its "funky, violin-adorned, socially engaged indie rock" (Rolling Stone) on Saturday, September 28, at 7:30 pm, in Spaulding Auditorium of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College. You can meet the band and learn more about their music at three free events: a conversation with band members and Middle Eastern Studies Professor Tarek El-Ariss on Friday, September 27, 5:30 pm; a talk by El-Ariss and student scholars about the band's music and activism on Saturday, September 28, 6:30 pm; and a Thursday Night Live dance party on Thursday, September 26 with members of Mashrou' Leila and Sankofa Danzafro and music by DJ Sean/Livemixkings.

(Watch Mashrou' Leila in an NPR "Tiny Desk Concert.")

With guitar, bass, drums, violin and the sinuous vocals of lead singer Hamed Sinno — who is openly gay in a region where that can provoke persecution and worse — Mashrou' Leila is a four-piece band based in Beirut. Their sensual, danceable anthems about political freedoms, LGBT rights, race, religion and modern Arabic identity have challenged the status quo of the Middle-Eastern pop industry.

Originally a loose collective of students who began jamming together in 2008 at the American University of Beirut, the group has gradually focused into an ambitious, fiercely articulate quartet: vocalist/lyricist Hamed Sinno, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Firas Abou Fakher, violinist Haig Papazian and drummer Carl Gerges. And the music they make has focused, too, into a charged, atmospheric version of pop that is geographically impossible to place and delivered with a critically acclaimed must-see live show.

The lyrics draw on their collective experiences, which the band shares with the youth of the Middle East and addresses the need for self-expression and a judgment-free culture — a notion often stifled in a conservative society. With their relevant and charged lyrics, their music has resonated with an ever-growing number of fans all over the globe, gaining international recognition for the band, plus an engaged and rapidly growing following on social media.

Described as "the voice of their generation" (CNN) and "the most successful Arabic-language band internationally" (The Guardian), Mashrou' Leila marks its tenth anniversary with the release of The Beirut School, a compilation of their classic tracks and new material and accompanying world tour.

One of the leading voices of the 2011 Arab Spring, Mashrou' Leila has refused to back down from social commentary even as the promise of political freedom has withered in Middle Eastern nations. Wrote Stepfeed.com, "The band's music works on two fronts: tackling subjects that are considered taboo in the Arab world and breaking the Arab image out of its orientalist mould — all in an intricate layer of edgy melodies and strident synthetic pop." Wrote Soundofboston.com,"Mashrou' Leila proved that they made more than catchy tunes — they made timeless songs capable of breaking through cultural and linguistic barriers."

Its bittersweet ballads and raucous anthems are outspoken: "My life spent with rights mortgaged off to your sentiments / My history erased from our books like they were yours to claim," Sinno sings in their song Tayf (Ghost), a solemn but defiant tribute to a Beirut gay bar that was shut down by Lebanese authorities in 2013.

Thanks to a close friendship between band members and Tarek El-Ariss, Dartmouth professor and chair of Middle Eastern Studies, Mashrou' Leila will be in residence for several days at Dartmouth, engaging with students and the general public in numerous events. Read El-Ariss's thoughts about the band here.