The latest edition of the annual music event in central France features artists from the Middle East as diverse as hard-edged Palestinian rappers DAM to Asaf Avidan, the Israeli folk singer who has won growing acclaim with his unique, high-pitched, androgynous voice.
The artists selected for the festival’s 39th edition, which runs through Wednesday, show the “dazzling and extremely creative scene” in the contemporary Middle East, said Elodie Mermoz, who was involved in programming.
The six-day festival also features plenty of stars from the broader music world including the Australian folk rock duo Angus and Julia Stone, gender-bending singer Christine and the Queens, and French-Finnish indie band The Do.
But with a showcase of eight artists from the Middle East, the festival is hoping to highlight some of the talent of a musical scene that — much like the region’s politics — is fast-moving.
Mermoz said that the rising interest in Middle Eastern artists went hand-in-hand with the eruption of the Arab Spring.
The region-wide revolt “has woken up the youth” and “from the moment they left the streets, they needed another ground for expression and that was music,” she said.
Original article by Anthony Lucas
Continue reading at Your Middle East:
Middle East musical rise on display in Europe
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