By John Keating, founder of The Delia Arts Foundation. The foundation provides the tools, infrastructure, and resources for musicians in regions where opportunities are scarce. The Delia Arts Foundation has launched the Delia Sessions, a regular music show featuring Palestinian musicians on Youtube on 6 February 2020.
In 2019, after several successful projects in North Africa and the Middle East, I decided to visit Palestine to meet with the people and listen to their stories. I was convinced that I must see the place for myself. I visited the West bank several times and produced musical projects there with young Palestinian artists. Shortly after, I had the opportunity to visit the Gaza Strip, which can only be described as a captivating place, with wonderful people who create true art, and great music, in spite of living in extremely poor conditions that can barely be imagined.
Right then and there I decided to produce a cover of the iconic song “Blackbird” for the young singer Wafaa Al Nejailly, who works as a nurse at one of Gaza’s hospitals. The song also features young singer Alaa Shoublaq, who emigrated a few days after filming the song to settle in Belgium. It’s a song that brings hope. It was co-produced by artist Ayman Mghamis, who translated the 1968 Beatles track to Arabic. The song was recorded in one of Gaza’s few remaining studios, and the video was shot at the Sea of Gaza, to symbolize freedom. We chose to shoot this video in the sea, to show a different face of Gaza and to show the greatest symbol of optimism, as if to offer an opportunity for freedom.
This song is a message of hope and peace. The young men and women of Gaza are living in the worst conditions in the world, yet they are making great art, and maintain their humanity, just as Lennon and McCartney wrote “into the light of the dark black night”.
Musically, I want to make sure the future is bright for these musicians. There are more upcoming musical projects with young artists from Gaza who deserve the world’s attention, and “Blackbird” comes as part of an integrated musical project in Palestine. I produced the song “Fi Mahal” with the young Palestinian artist Lina Sleibi in Bethlehem, which will soon be part of our foundation’s Delia Sessions, on Youtube. The Delia Sessions is an acoustic music show featuring young Palestinian musicians, and was inspired by NPR’s Tiny Desk and similar live session videos for international audiences.
Visiting Palestine and listening to these musicians gave me the initial idea for the Delia Sessions, to give them a wide, international platform to showcase their talent. I wanted to bring this great ‘live session’ vibe and opportunity to Palestine. These wonderfully vibrant and charismatic artists are eager to have their voices and stories heard, and producing something as subtle and modern as these sessions makes them all the more accessible to a global audience. I want to help change the stereotypes most people have from reading the headlines about this country. The idea for the Delia Sessions is simple: producing traditional Arabic tracks with modern arrangements to let a new generation of audiences re-discover the beauty of these classic songs.
I have visited Palestine a number of times and I love it. There are many more projects that I hope and dream to implement in Palestine, both musically and educationally, and I think that the world should listen and know more about the true creativity of Palestinian artists.
2019 was a year of firsts, and most notably our first full year in operation at the Delia Arts Foundation. We received our first donations, began talking with potential partners, created a website, and started sharing our story and projects with our followers. Most importantly, we impacted our first artists, and I couldn’t be more excited to finally launch our Delia Sessions and spread these artists’ message of hope, peace, tolerance, creativity and humanity. These are values we all share.
We’re a non-profit organisation working with musicians in conflict zones, and we work with artists from conflict high-poverty regions and marginalised communities for the Delia Sessions specifically. We want to create positive change in the lives of musicians and their communities, and bring attention to Palestine: its beauty and challenges.
I dream to produce a full album of traditional songs with these amazing young artists, and for this wonderful land of Palestine. They are the world’s most deserving and under-served artists. As a global music industry we have a great responsibility to help their message get across. And why not, maybe we can change the world through music?
