Mashrou Leila Sometimes transliterated as Mashrou3 Leila or Leila's Project) is a Lebanese four-member indie rock band.
The band formed in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2008 as a music workshop at the American University of Beirut.
The band has released four studio albums: Mashrou' Leila (2009), Raasük (2013), Ibn El Leil (2015) and The Beirut School (2019); and an EP, El Hal Romancy (2011), while causing many controversies due to their satirical lyrics and themes.
Hamed Sinno, a Lebanese artist who is a member of the band "Mashrou' Leila," shocked the crowd by announcing the band's demise.
Hamed Sinno explained the reasoning behind this decision in an interview with the Lebanese "Sarda" podcast on Sunday.
He cited the band's harassment and numerous accusations, as well as the policy of bans imposed on it in various Arab countries because of complaints about the band's breach of public taste.
"The pace of bans in Arab countries has accelerated, and has taken on a hostile and blatant nature," he stated, adding that "the ban has become something quite usual and easy to make... We are reactionaries and homophobic, what are you going to do?"
Hamed claimed that online slurs and hate campaigns forced him and the band members to be extremely stressed out and unable to work.
He emphasized that the band afterwards relocated to the United States of America and intended to hold performances there as well as in Europe and Canada, but COVID-19 put Mashrou Leila 's members in a precarious financial situation because the closure eliminated all of its opportunities of holding concerts.
There are no future plans for the band, every member is excellent and can work alone, stated Hamed, highlighting how tough it is for the band to continue performing in light of the loss of its audience.
This hate campaign took a tragic turn, after Mashrou Leila concert in Cairo in 2017, when LGBT activist Sarah Hegazy raised the rainbow flag, and Egyptian authorities arrested and imprisoned her, and after her release from prison, she committed suicide in Canada, where she chose her self-imposed exile.
Written By: Lara AlNimri
