Lebanese musician and singer Marcel Khalife has re-recorded four of the poet Mahmoud Darwish’s most prominent poems, using only his voice and the oud, nearly half a century after presenting their first versions. The new release is due to be officially issued next November, after an audience at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris heard it during the Mahmoud Darwish Poetry Day events.
Khalife performs four poems anew with the oud
The events, held from 25 to 27 September in the presence of Khalife, featured the new recordings of the poems “Rita”, “My Mother”, “Passport” and “Promises from the Storm”. The Lebanese artist retained the original texts and melodies, but performed them anew with a voice and experience shaped over decades, presenting a musical arrangement based solely on the oud.
The first versions of these works date back to August 1976, when Khalife recorded them in a small studio in the French capital after leaving Lebanon because of the civil war. The record was presented at the time during celebrations held by the French newspaper L’Humanité in the Lebanese pavilion, before making its way to Beirut and Arab capitals, where its songs became embedded in the public’s memory.
The 1976 recordings return to the foreground amid wars
Khalife recalled the circumstances of that experience as the questions carried by Darwish’s poems returned to the fore amid the ongoing wars in the region. He said the new recording represented a “heartfelt” tribute to the martyrs who fell in Gaza, Palestine and southern Lebanon.
He explained that recording the first and new versions in Paris had happened by coincidence, stressing that the message did not originate from the city itself, but was “a message from the song, from the poem, from Mahmoud Darwish and from Marcel Khalife”.
Khalife linked his continuation of musical work to preserving hope in the face of wars and losses, saying: “This hope must remain; even if it is impossible, let us hold on to this impossibility,” adding that as soon as a person sings, they have begun to “triumph over the oppressor and defeat”. He stressed that each person continuing with their role and project, whether through a poem, song or music, was the way to carry on.
He said the purpose of returning to these works was not to change their melodies or texts, but to rework and record them anew after they had been etched in people’s minds.
Marcel Khalife is known as one of the Arab world’s leading political singers. His long career has been marked by musical diversity while remaining committed to his artistic identity, despite differing views of his career and work.
