Gaza’s wonder boy: underdog Mohammed Assaf wins Arab Idol and rise to fame

In a land where children defend themselves by throwing pebbles at tanks, where holding the Palestinian flag is not only banned but met with violence, and where Israeli soldiers and settlers may break into your home at any moment and claim it as their own, is a land the world least expected the next winner of Arab Idol to come from. 

Mohammed Assaf grew up with six siblings in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, a coastal Palestinian city that has remained under siege of Israeli forces for the past 15 years. Assaf lifted spirits with his voice at local events, weddings, and wherever else he could manage to sing. At 5 years old, Assaf’s brother tells the Washington Post, he sang in honor of the late Yasser Arafat, the former leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. At 11, Assaf sang “Be Strong My Country” at the height of an Israeli invasion on Gaza. In the face of the countless hardships of living under a military occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, Assaf sings at any chance.

It was his intense and deeply personal relationship with music that inspired Assaf to audition for Arab Idol in 2013. The auditions were to take place in Cairo, so 22 year-old Assaf packed his bags alongside his dreams, and made his way to the Egyptian border. Mobility, though, is not easy for a Palestinian. Apart from frequent and invasive checkpoints within Israeli-occupied Palestine itself, entering and leaving borders as a Palestinian is a sizeable feat. Held up at the Rafah crossing of Egypt for two days, Assaf resorted to bribing the security to grant him access, but not without consequence. He arrived at the recital hall late–the gate was closed, and no more tickets would be given out. Without a number pinned to his shirt, Assaf’s singing would not be heard by the judges.  Frustrated and disappointed, Assaf called his mother to break the bad news. Unfazed, she demanded that Assaf not turn back now. “I always take [my parents’] advice, and I believe my mother’s gut feeling is never, ever wrong,” Assaf said in an interview with Enigma, and soon enough, it would ring true.

Naturally, Assaf did just as his mother said. Physically jumping over the fence that stood between him and his chance at an audition—and symbolically over the hurdles of being turned away at every opportunity—Assaf makes it into the audition hall. Still, without an audition number, his efforts would be pointless. In a fit of passionate desperation, Assaf does what is most natural to him, and begins singing in the waiting area beside the other contestants. Amongst them was a 19 year-old Palestinian contestant named Ramadan Adib Abu Nahel. Beyond impressed, Abu Nahel gave Assaf his audition number, and therefore his spot in the competition. The troubling journey would be worthwhile if it meant that he was able to perform. “[Assaf] hugged me and said, ‘Thank you very much, I will never forget your favor,’” Abu Nahel told NPR.

Palestinian solidarity is hard to come by when global superpowers and settler colonialism are pitted against you. Assaf nearly didn’t get the chance to face the judges, but by the heartwarming compassion of a fellow Palestinian, he took the stage. Just like Abu Nahel, judges were stunned by Assaf. Judge and superstar Nancy Ajram, the Lebanese musician whose music is found in every corner of the Arab world, was left speechless by a performance, “you are a true singer,” she told Assaf. Another judge described his skill to be “precise as a ruler,” and a third said Assaf’s voice “is made of diamond.” While the stern Simon Cowell doesn’t make an appearance on this spinoff of the Idol franchise, it’s likely that he too would grant his approval.

Assaf went onto sing gorgeous renditions ranging from nationalistic Palestinian folk songs to The Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” delivering vocal control and charisma each time. Maqamat in Arabic singing includes a system of scales and vocal techniques, which are notoriously difficult to master and vary by region, whose inflections and subtle tones may be difficult to spot for Western-accustomed ears. Assaf effortlessly navigates these tonal maps, and all without ever taking professional music lessons, according to an interview with Enigma. As he sings with ease, it’s clear that music has always been second nature to Assaf, and the audience feels it too. 

It didn’t take long for the Arab world to be starstruck by Assaf, both for his talent and his dedication to his people. Assaf garnered unparalleled support from across the Arab world, and in Palestine, murals and posters of his smiling face were hung about. A local phone company, Jawwal, even cut the cost of texting rates to encourage voting for Assaf’s win. 

A longtime friend tells the Washington Post, “he is the Palestinian dream.” For Palestinians, art and experience cannot be separated; when living under apartheid and genocide, even existing becomes a political act. “I cannot differentiate between my art and my patriotic attitude,”Assaf tells Palestinian Maan News Agency after singing in honor of a Palestinian hunger-striker. “I was living in harsh conditions all my life. The occupation, the siege, and the relentless oppression left me with feelings of hopelessness most of the time. But I’ve always fought against losing all hope,” Assaf tells Enigma magazine, and his advice to those like him—“Don’t give up when you get rejected. I was rejected about 7 million times.” His persistence is exactly what led him to win Arab Idol that season. 

 

Falling to the floor to kneel in a prayer position, Assaf was a mixture of humble and incredulous upon hearing the results of the competition. His family and friends flooded the stage, enthusiastically lifting him on their shoulders and showering him in hugs and kisses. The celebration didn’t stop there, cheers erupted in major cities across the Arab world, with the sounds of car horns, fireworks and joy filling the air. In his hometown of Gaza, roads were entirely gridlocked, with fans standing on cars and dancing in the streets to Assaf’s music. 

“This is the best thing that’s happened to Palestine since God knows when,” a witness told a CNN reporter, with crowds of cheering civilians behind him. A Palestinian flag draped around his neck like an Olympian and with trophy in hand, Assaf dedicated his win to the Palestinian people. As the winner of the show, he was then signed to Platinum records and went onto make one of the hallmark songs of Palestinian culture, “Dammi Falastini.” A beloved icon in Arab culture, Assaf was also made a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). As he told Engima, “music is something that makes people come together, and I want to serve the Palestinian cause with my songs. I’ll keep doing that as long as I live.”

Mohammed Assaf is the epitome of Palestinian resilience, flourishing even under violent and systematic oppression. He makes art in the face of brutality, and against all odds. Assaf has brought pride to his family in the Khan Younis refugee camp of Gaza, and brings hope to the hopeless. As fan Widad Al-Khayyat tweeted, “Mohammed Assaf didn’t free #Palestine. But he brought joy to people who didn’t smile for the past 65 years of occupation.” 

For this article, I will not be authoring my real name in avoidance of Canary Mission, an organization which vilifies, blacklists and doxes Palestinians and Palestinian rights activists, typically college students, for speaking out against the settler state of Israel. Wrongfully convolving anti-Zionism for anti-Semitism, the organization attacks individuals for spreading awareness on the Israeli apartheid and denouncing Israel’s illegal occupation of historic Palestine. B-side will not hesitate to actively stand against settler colonialism and genocide. In turn, I have signed with a pen name to continue writing this content. 

 

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