Lebanese singer Sumayya Baalbaki is gearing up to perform a concert at UNESCO in Beirut. The proceeds will be allocated to the Palestinian Intifada.
At the concert, Baalbaki will perform her new song Alli Ya Filistin which she composed.
Baalbaki confirmed her agreement with the Lebanese singer Marcel Khalifa who called for performing concerts and allocating their proceeds for the Palestinian people. “I have repeatedly called on the Arab and Lebanese singers not to limit their roles to singing but rather to prove their participation on the ground through the financial support of any humanitarian issue. This is part of my work with the humanitarian establishments in Lebanon. I also would like to call for establishing a fund the proceeds of which should go to humanitarian establishments and societies including the Lebanese Red Cross, Palestinian Red Crescent and other international societies,” Balbaki told the daily al Nahar.
“I cannot adapt to the prevailing and repeated pattern songs. I am an artist committed to everything noble whether music or something else. I am committed to the land, homeland and my Arab and Lebanese identity and to the music and word provided it is targeted at the service of our issues. Art should be targeted at these issues even partly by highlighting the beauty of our cultures and arts and not merely to be an artistic, commercial and consumption work alone,” Balbaki said.
She sees herself as not being neglected but her type of art is being neglected as she said. “A Lebanese satellite channel invited me to participate in one of its programs but I turned the invitation down because I considered the program irrelevant. I did not consider the present circumstances as a ladder to climb. I do not absent myself but I choose the place to appear in,” she added -- Albawaba.com
