As the lights go down and the speakers blare, the thumping drums of Dammi Falastini is met by a singing crowd and keffiyeh’s waving in the air. As a stream of dancers and instrumentalists assume places, Saint Levant swaggers to the stage to an array of flags all painted in green, red, black, and white over the barricade.
Touring on his debut album, Deira, named after his family’s hotel in Al-Rimal, Gaza, the record is an ode to the ties that can never be severed from homeland. Clad in a bulletproof vest with an embroidered patch of the Palestinian flag in the center of his chest, the singer marches along with his dancers to the record’s opening track On This Land with Arabic lyrics calling in defiance “even if they steal the land [...] oh, my country, I will not forget you.”
Marwan Abdelhamid more colloquially known as Saint Levant bridges every thread of his identities. Being of Palestinian, Algerian, French, and Serbian descent, his songs boast three languages. Melodic and rhythmic, he raps and sings seamlessly between lines of English, Arabic, and French. Blending the likes of rap with sensual footnotes, the liveliness of Levantine folk, and the energy of North African beats, his sound allures yet summons an insatiable foot-tapping array of earworms.
A Saint Levant show is the epitome of Arab pride with the constant waving of our flags in defiance including but not limited to the flags of Palestine, Algeria, and a newly freed Syria. From a performance of dabke, a traditional Levantine dance style to his newly released track Daloona to the thumping bass of Nails, dancing is a constant heartbeat through the set.
The entire show is simply dripping with joy and celebration in the face of regional conflict and desecration, a testament to the pure will to remain steadfast and an ever present hope for peace.
From the stunning vocalist Lina Makoul as opener to Toronto’s own Nemahsis who was brought to the stage as a guest, the Danforth Music Hall held up an array of Palestinian talent through the night. Ending the show as it started, Dammi Falastini played once more as the artists retired backstage and, yet, despite the end of a show the crowd continued to smile and dance on more.
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