STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Just last year, the musician Saint Levant was performing in sweaty basements. Now he's selling out venues across Europe and the United States with songs about his family and Gaza, where he grew up.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FORGIVE ME")
SAINT LEVANT: (Singing) You know that I don't want to be great if I'm alone. So, Mama, I might come back to the city that raised me.
INSKEEP: Our colleague Majd al-Waheidi caught up with Saint Levant and his fans before a show in Washington, D.C.
MAJD AL-WAHEIDI, BYLINE: Saint Levant is adored by fans with roots in the Middle East and North Africa, like Pascal Halabi (ph).
PASCAL HALABI: I mean, we're Arab. We love that big bass drum hit. And it brings you back home.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAINT LEVANT AND MC ABDUL SONG, "DEIRA")
AL-WAHEIDI: Dima Alkakan (ph) also likes him for another reason.
DIMA ALKAKAN: First of all, Saint Levant is super cute (laughter).
AL-WAHEIDI: The 24-year-old's real name is Marwan Abdelhamid. He's on tour with his new album called "Deira," named after a hotel his father built on the Gaza seashore.
LEVANT: You know when you dream and you go back to places in your childhood? It's always Deira for me. Always.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEIRA")
LEVANT: (Singing in Arabic).
For me it's like, oh, my God, it's a castle. But it's really not. There wasn't that many rooms either. It was kind of a boutique hotel, right? Would you agree? You've been to Deira.
AL-WAHEIDI: Yes, I've been there. For locals and foreigners alike, it was a hub, a place to escape the hardship of life in Gaza, to relax, enjoy the view and the seafood. Then came the October 7 attack on Israel last year that the government there says killed about 1,200 people. And since then, Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry. Most buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.
LEVANT: Deira was bombed in November of 2023. The terra-cotta colors are still there, but the inside is all bombed. This is the reality of being Palestinian, specifically from Gaza. You see things that you love get destroyed.
AL-WAHEIDI: Abdelhamid started writing his latest music before the war. What began as nostalgia became a meditation on ruins and the foundation for his new album.
LEVANT: That's the concept for me of "Deira," is, like, we have rebuilt it, and it's the opening. And we are living in a liberated Palestine. And our kids are running around in the sand and trying to catch fish with their bare hands, just like I used to do when I was a kid.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VERY FEW FRIENDS")
LEVANT: (Rapping) Lover boy Levant back in the building.
AL-WAHEIDI: Abdelhamid's music has another side. He is still a young man falling in and out of love. His breakout song, "Very Few Friends," was released in 2022.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VERY FEW FRIENDS")
LEVANT: (Rapping) Next year, I'll be on FIFA. Ah, t'as kiffe that I'm driven, baby? But the thing is, I have very few friends.
I'm very inspired by Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian poet that speaks a lot about love, compares the love for his homeland and the love for a lover. I just say what I want to say, and I sing what I want to sing. And, yes, I'm Palestinian and I'm proud. And, yes, I'm a lover boy and I'm proud.
AL-WAHEIDI: I asked Abdelhamid if the war has changed how he approaches music.
LEVANT: It is a bit tough to continue to make art while your brothers and sisters in Gaza are suffering and being displaced, and they're living in tents and you're scared. My mom always tells me that my existence is resistance. For me, continuing to show up every day is more important now than ever.
(CHEERING)
AL-WAHEIDI: Saint Levant opens his concerts with the same song - "On This Land." Part of it was recorded in Gaza during the war.
Majd Al-Waheidi, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ON THIS LAND")
LEVANT: (Rapping) We didn't choose to live this life overseas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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