For the annual Fête de la Musique celebration on June 21st, Paris’ famed Institut du Monde Arabe will showcase the Arab world’s colourful music scene and character this evening with a digital streaming stage of the region’s flavours.
Curated by the Godfather of the Lebanese underground music scene, Zeid Hamdan, and Beyt Music, the lineup is dominated by electro-shaabi and hip hop. With representation from Palestine, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, and Morocco, the stream will commence live from Bethlehem with a set from ‘sound alchemist’ Julmud, before the digital stage is taken by Khalil Hentati, Wael Alkak, Zeid Hamdan, Oum & M-Carlos, and, finally, Ernesto Chahoud.
The stream can be caught on Institut du Monde Arabe’s Facebook page, and will be simultaneously broadcasted online from Palestine’s margins to the global neighbourhood through Radio Al Hara.
A cultural foundation in the French capital created in 1980 by France alongside 18 Arab nations, the Institut du Monde Arabe, or Arab World Institution, strives to promote and disseminate the cultural rumblings brewing and thriving within the Arab region to a French audience.
The institute is currently showcasing a popular spectacle of the Arab’s world’s 20th century divas, from Oum Khalthoum to Fairuz, a flashback exhibiting the women who took centre stage in the region and honouring the ways in which they left lasting impressions in their societies. This evening’s digital stream, meanwhile, promises to serve as a cultural artefact attesting to the endurance of the Arab world’s perpetual reinvention of its musical identities.
