Bashar Murad
بشار مراد
Musician
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Palestine
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Jerusalem,
Palestine
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✓ Verified
Palestinian pop artist from Jerusalem whose colorful, genre bending singles confront gender norms and social taboos head on.
Bashar Murad writes pop songs the way most people write diary entries, direct, a little theatrical, and unwilling to soften an uncomfortable truth for the sake of a smoother chorus. Based in East Jerusalem, he has built a catalog that treats queerness, gender expression, and Palestinian identity as inseparable parts of the same story.
He reached international audiences in 2019 through “Klefi / Samed,” a collaboration with the Icelandic techno punk band Hatari that followed the group’s pointed display of Palestinian flags at the Eurovision Song Contest final in Tel Aviv. His 2021 debut EP “Maskhara,” Arabic for “joke” or “farce,” doubled down on the satire, using bright production to carry sharp social commentary.
Murad has since become a fixture of the region’s alternative pop scene, proof that a single from Jerusalem can sit comfortably next to anything coming out of Berlin or London.
Languages
Arabic, English
Representation
Independent