Digital guillotines for some celebrities - Others make music for Palestine
A playlist of some of the best
It was just too much. Met Gala 2024, the annual fundraiser for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, kicking off its yearly fashion exhibition with a theme about a count and countess living in a paradise fending off a mob from the dystopia beyond its walls by trying to turn time backwards, ultimately unsuccessfully. Celebrities in outrageously expensive costumes parading down the red carpet in their narcissistic displays heading for their $75,000-a-pop seats. All while the NYPD blocked a protest against the Gaza genocide taking place in the streets outside. The contrast was already being drawn between the Gala’s celebrity bubble and Gaza’s agony.
But the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back was a post from a social media influencer with a following of millions who goes by the handle hayleyybayley. The day of the event, dressed in an ornate Marie Antionette gown posed in front of a street crowd, she lip synched the French monarch’s words,“Let them eat cake,” from a movie about her. They were reputedly spoken in response to a famine which helped precipitate the French Revolution in which the she was beheaded.
In response Gen Z, the first generation raised entirely in the digital era which dawned in the mid-90s, has invented an entirely new form of resistance, Blockout 2024. Across TikTok and other social media platforms they called for people to block celebrities who have not taken a stand on Gaza, including all those who attended the Gala. They called for blocking rather than unfollowing, because blocking stops all posts, having a greater impact on algorithms and earnings. Reacting to “Let them eat cake,” some described this as a “digitine,” or a “digital guillotine.” The short video at the head of this post tells the story.
Kim Kardashian, the epitome of being a celebrity just because she is a celebrity, and who showed up at the Gala in an impossibly tight corset dress, became target #1. I have heard numbers ranging from 100,000 to 3 million blocks. Another target who reportedly has suffered huge losses is Taylor Swift, who was not at the Gala because she is touring Europe. To be fair to Taylor, she is taking it from both ends. In December, she and Selena Gomez attended a comedy benefit by Ramy Youssef for American Near East Refugee Aid, which helps refugees in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. It was reported as an “Anti-Israel event.” Megyn Kelly called for a boycott. Though Taylor was showing some sympathy for the Palestinians here, I suppose when you are one of the top celebrities in the world, a more public stance is demanded.
Blockout 2024 hit a nerve. Across social media the anti-celebrity attitude is clear. Many see this as a moment in culture. Young people who are struggling to make ends meet are getting sick of celebrities with their ostentatious displays of wealth. Living their glamorous lifestyles while we are seeing images of dead children and bombed out cities is just too jarring a dissonance. The Met Gala and the “Let them eat cake” post were the sparks that lit a pool of gasoline. Hayley Khalid, aka hayleybayley, (born O’Brien, name from a football player she married and from whom she separated in 2022) has since apologized, saying she was unaware of the implications of he statement. In that she confessed how out of touch she is.
Other celebrities have been taking a stand. Roger Waters and Billie Ellish include pro-Palestinian messages in their shows. Susan Sarandon lost her booking agency for her stand. Annie Lennox called for a ceasefire in her Grammy Awards ceremony performance. A number of pro-Palestinian celebrities are listed here.
Another who came out recently is my fellow Seattleite, rapper Macklemore, who released “Hind’s Hall” May 6, recalling the occupation and renaming of a Columbia building for a 6-year-old girl murdered by the IDF, Hind Rajab. It is a hard hitting declaration of support for the people of Gaza, and goes right at accusations of anti-semitism by noting the many Jews who are taking the same position. All proceeds go to UNRWA, the agency providing relief to the Palestinians defunded by the U.S. and other nations on scanty evidence of Hamas connections.
I am not sure why YouTube put the age restriction on this video. Its images are a lot less shocking than some you will see in other videos posted below. Maybe YouTube’s excuse is that Macklemore dropped the F-bomb. But I think it is really to restrict the reach of a major artist. If so they are not very successful. It had 2.4 million views by the day of this posting.
This Twitter/X post shows youth in Gaza listening to Macklemore and thanking him. They also show they are well aware of Hind Rajab.
A couple of other rappers with whom I have been familiar have been carrying the message of Palestine. One rapper who has been with the Palestinian cause for a long time is Lowkey, a British citizen with an Iraqi mother. He has been rapping for the Palestinian cause since his release of “Long Live Palestine” in 2009. Lowkey has been active in the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and has travelled to the West Bank and Gaza doing humanitarian assistance, in the process being detained by Israeli police. The first video has gained 920,000 views since it was released 5 months old. The second came out 5 years ago.
I have also been familiar with MC Abdul, a 15-year-old rap sensation from Gaza who debuted in 2021, was signed to a record company owned by a Palestinian-American, and moved to Los Angeles in August. Below are 2 videos from him, one telling of his agony and worries about the family he left behind that dropped 5 months ago. The second is about young people’s right to an education, with a backdrop of war from 8 months ago shortly after the Gaza War began. More about MC Abdul here.
Inspired by these, I went searching on YouTube for other songs of Palestinian resistance, and found quite a few, more than I can cover here. Most of the below came out since the Gaza War started. All except one are by artists from Islamic countries or with Islamic backgrounds, which is not surprising. (h/t to The National News for tuning me into several of these artists who didn’t turn up in my search, Rajieen, Nader Khan, Kadin Al Sahir and Elyanna.)
There are many more songs than appear here. Since this post is already getting long I created a YouTube playlist, Songs of Palestinian Freedom. Please send more in the comments and I’ll add them.
Rajieen “features 25 Arab artists singing and rapping verses over a dramatic backdrop provided by Jordanian producer Nasir Al Bashir, alongside Egypt’s Marwan Moussa and Amr Shomali,” reports The National News. “Those featured include two of the Arab world’s biggest hip-hop stars, Afroto and Marwan Pablo from Egypt, in addition to Jordanian viral sensation Issam Alnajjar, Syrian singer-songwriter Ghaliaa Chaker and Tunisian singer Balti.” Turn on captions in the icon on the upper right hand to translate the Arabic to English.
Maher Zain is of Lebanese descent. His family moved to Sweden when he was 8. He later moved to New York where he worked as a music producer. On return to Sweden in 2009 he turned to performance as an R&B singer with Islamic themes. The first video, with stunning animation, was originally released 14 years ago, and was recently re-released. Unfortunately, as you will see, the situations it depicts remain the same. it could have been made yesterday.
Nader Khan “is a Canadian singer-songwriter, recording artist, producer, arts educator, and musicologist, with a specific focus on traditional and contemporary Islamic devotional/Sufi music. Over the last 25 years, he has toured and performed across the world,” his website says. This song’s biting lyrics are shown scrolling against a backdrop listing some the many killed in Gaza.
Dana Salah, a Jordanian-Palestinian born in Amman in 2000, is a popular singer-songwriter who spent some years in New York City but returned to Amman in 2020. She made hit dance tunes but now sings in Arabic.
Elyanna is a Palestinian-Chilean who sings in Arabic. Living far away from her ancestral land, she nonetheless feels close, as this song shows.
Kadim Al Sahir is an Iraqi artist. “A collaboration with the UN Chamber Music Society, the orchestral track is a rare occasion where the Iraqi singer performs in English,” writes The National News. “The resonance remains, however, as Al Sahir sings of the anguish upon seeing civilians suffer as a result of the war.”
Humood Alkhudher is a singer-songwriter who was born in Kuwait and spent time in Britain before returning to his homeland.
El-Ganainy, an Egyptian rapper, tells the history of the land in a November 2023 release. He contests the renaming of traditional Arab communities, but in the end calls for neighborliness and peace. Another where you have to turn on captions.
Muad and Zayann sing Islamic music in modern styles. They release on the British label Muadmusic.
Eddy Mack, an Arab-American hip hop artist, hails from Detroit.
KHXLED, also known as Khalid Siddiq, is of Jamaican and Irish heritage, and based in Britain. His hip hop tunes proclaim his Islamic faith.
Seth Staton Walkins, who sings in the Irish rebel ballad style, is actually an American from St. Louis. The style is appropriate to tell the story of a people who, like the Irish, have suffered under oppression.
Music expresses the human spirit. So much of it here in these tunes! Makes one hope for a Palestine that is free for all the people living “from the river to the sea.”
Thanks for this great collection! By the way, Hind Hall, the name replacing the occupied Hamilton Hall, is at Columbia, not Harvard. It's where the administrative offices of Columbia College, the principal undergraduate school, are located, as well as several departmental offices, such as mine, Classics. In 1985, the building was blockaded, not occupied, by the divestment-from-South-Africa demonstrators (a wonderful bunch of people). I happened to be teaching a core curriculum course inside at the time; although there was another, subterranean way to enter the building, we chose to look for class space elsewhere.
Thanks for this comprehensive list of celebrities and musicians who do and do not support Palestinians.