“I’m so glad I found this. Beautiful. Love”… reads a comment by Marta in the YouTube comments section of Haya Zaatry’s songs Manakir (مناكير) and Borders and Promises (حدود ووعود).
“This is the creative musical collaboration that is Delia Sessions, in association with Delia Arts Foundation.
“These songs are messages in a bottle, bobbing in a sea of internet noise, waiting for the right person to find it. For the first half of 2022, 6 videos featuring Palestinian artists will be released as a way of profiling and promoting artists from conflict zones, which is the mandate of the Delia Arts Foundation.
“In this article, we’ll be featuring the first two artists whose videos have been included as part of the Delia Sessions in 2022. As with all things on the internet, please like and share and let’s get these messages in the bottle out into the public domain.
“This way people all over the world can learn more about what is going on in Palestine, as well as its rich cultural heritage and bright musical future.
Haya Zaatry
Watch her Delia Sessions video
“With 7000 Instagram followers, Haya Zaatry is already something of an icon and inspiration to other aspiring musicians in Palestine. She moonlights as an architect and researcher, and is the co-founder of “Eljam”, which aims to promote and develop the Palestinian live underground music scene.
“Haya Zaatry simply oozes class. Her smoky, sultry voice croons in Arabic to the rhythm of her own electric guitar.
“In ‘Manakir’ she sings about how “I feel like I’m moving on my own in a traffic jam” – with an oblique reference to facemasks and arrows pointing one way while she knows that her path is in the opposite direction.
“For a ‘westerner’ or English speaker, the subtitles add enormous value to this message in a bottle. One can not only appreciate her sound, but also what she is singing about.
“The videography for the Delia Sessions is also very simple, almost stripped bare so as best to expose the musician at their most vulnerable.
“This video was recorded at Al Yakhour in Haifa, Palestine. The goal of the Delia Sessions is to introduce talented artists and beautiful music from these regions to a new global audience. The video is a sterling example of how this goal is achieved as it intersplices two of the musician’s songs with a featured interview in between.
“Listen to Haya speak candidly about her creative process and how she writes of the pain from her personal, daily experiences as a Palestinian. Her ambition is not just for her music to reach people on digital platforms (her video has 67 000 views and counting, and she has 11 000 monthly listeners on Spotify), but also to perform live in concert and enjoy that physical connection with an audience that most Palestinians simply can’t enjoy on account of the strict travel bans that hinder freedom of movement.
“Music is therapy for Haya, “It’s the place where I face my feelings that I’m sometimes afraid to confront.” It works for the artist, and it works for the audience too. We know her more intimately by the time she sings her second song, Borders and Promises. Here again is a poetic yearning for life beyond the border, a life of promises.
“It’s a song sung to a distant lover, with the hope that they’ll be reunited one day and be able to walk together, “here”, hand in hand. The “here” is Palestine, and for now this video is a heartfelt expression of that hope.
Oudai Al Khateeb
Watch his Delia Sessions video
“The songs he performs are Min Dehkitik (من ضحكتك) and Balad Kharban (بلد خربان). The best way to get in touch with Oudai Al Khateeb is via his Facebook page.
“Oudai has a remarkably story. As a singer from Al Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron, he has seen it all. And while he has been singing for over 15 years, until now he hasn’t had the resources or opportunity to record his own music video.
“That all changed with his inclusion in the Delia Sessions. His video quickly racked up 46 000 views, with the exposure then landing him an interview on a Palestinian radio station.
“As Delia Sessions coordinator Madj Hajjaj puts it, “Palestinian artists are serious and hard-working; they would benefit from any chance to promote their work.”
“Oudai is singing in the video, Jihad Shouibi is on percussion, and Mohamed Kahla is playing the oud. The oud immediately stands out as (to a westerner) it looks like a rather peculiar instrument.
“Its roots date back to ancient Mesopotamia. It has no set musical keys (frets), so there is more freedom regarding the spaces between the notes and scales that you would associate with a guitar and the conventional western approach to musical organization. And it is in this liberation that Middle Eastern music lives and breathes.
“Performed live at Beer, Birzeit in Palestine, the video starts with the oud, almost paying homage to this Palestinian musical ancestry. Oudai is then singing to a woman, presumably, “No breeze can carry your hair; perhaps exhaustion is in the air.”
“When the percussions chime in on about the 1-minute mark, we know that we’re in business as the oud delivers a riff with a driving force that makes you sit bolt upright in your chair.
“Mohamed Kahla, the oud player, is from a village called Rammoun (east of Ramallah), and he teaches music for a living. He addresses the elephant in the room during the interview part of the video by lamenting the challenge Palestinian musicians face to remain relevant in the face of more popular global music.
“He says, “We don’t have music culture in our country as is the case in Europe and other countries”. Oudai adds, “My dream is to relive the ‘good old music time’, like Mohammed Abd AL Wahab songs”.
“There’s a conversation that is begun here. Thoughts expressed that in turn lead to a healthy discussion about where Palestinian music has come from and where it can go next. One Delia Sessions video leads to comment here, and a radio interview there. And so the culture of Palestinian music grows. Something beautiful is at work in the undercurrents with the Delia Sessions. Do stay tuned for the upcoming performances.
“Please reach out to: hello@delia-arts.org or visit www.delia-arts.org if you know of Palestinian musicians that deserve to be recorded for the Delia Sessions.
