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
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
