Arab musician Saint Levant to make Coachella debut

Part-Palestinian rapper has gone viral for his songs melding Arabic, English and French

Saint Levant will be taking to the stage at Coachella on April 13 and 20. Getty Images

Arab musician Saint Levant is set to make his debut at Coachella later this year.

The rapper behind viral hits such as I Guess, Very Few Friends and Nails will be performing at the popular music and arts festival held at the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert across two weekends on April 12-14 and April 19-21.

The annual festival will also include major international acts such as Lana Del Ray, Tyler the Creator, Ice Spice, Doja Cat and No Doubt to name a few.

Saint Levant will be following in the footsteps of other Arab artists who have performed on the Coachella stage such as Israeli-Arab group Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis in 2017; Moroccan hip-hop star French Montana with Canadian-Palestinian rapper Belly in 2018; Australian singer of Iraqi-Syrian origin Wafia in 2019; Palestinian DJ Sama in 2022; and Palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter Elyanna last year.

Saint Levant went viral in 2022 when he released his chart-topping album Very Few Friends and debut EP From Gaza, With Love, quickly making a name for himself in the Mena region for his unique approach to music.

The part-Palestinian rapper creates songs melding Arabic, English and French, and has been gaining popularity across the region as well and in the Arab diaspora thanks to platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.

Raised in Gaza and Amman, Saint Levant comes from a diverse cultural background which includes French, Algerian and Serbian. His music, style and persona has been seen as a provocative way to gain popularity and to shift away from negative Arab stereotypes.

His distinct approach of mixing musical genres was experienced in the UAE when Saint Levant performed in Dubai for the first time at the Quoz Arts Fest in January 2023.

Saint Levant, whose real name is Marwan Abdelhamid, was also named “Man of the Year” by GQ Middle East and GQ France last year. During his acceptance speech for the French edition of the publication at the Shangri La in Paris in November, the musician dedicated the award to the children of Palestine and revealed that he was also asked not to mention anything related to the current situation in Gaza.

“They told me not to mention Palestine if I won this prize tonight,” he said on stage. “But you cannot censor me and I cannot stay silent while more than 8,000 Palestinian children have been murdered by the Israeli occupation that has been going on for 75 years... It’s not a conflict.

“It’s a 75-year-old occupation... And if I had the time, I’d tell you the story of those Palestinian children. All these kids had a voice. A body, a face, a name and dreams like all of us. And this prize is for them.”

More information at www.coachella.com