HannesGoeiemorgen, Nai Barghouti, Leigh-Anne, Neneh Cherry & Together For Palestine - Lullaby (feat. Amena, Bastille, Brian Eno, Celeste, Kieran Brunt, Lana Lubany, London Community Gospel Choir, Mabel, Nadine Shah, Sura Abdo, TYSON, Yasmeen Ayyashi & Ysee) [Edit] staat vandaag nog steeds op 1 in de iTunes Top 100 van België. https://randomize.be/top100/19122025BE #naibarghouti,leigh-anne,nenehcherry&togetherforpalestine #itunes #belgië
Contemporary Classical - Thea DerksNai Barghouti: ‘I have always felt a strong connection between Arabic music and jazz’
The star of the Palestinian singer, composer and flute player Nai Barghouti is rising in the Netherlands. She was a guest of the renowned tv-show Podium Witteman, won the Concertgebouw Young Talent Award 2020, and boasts almost 80,000 followers on Instagram. On 7 November she will close the Eratofestival Meppel with a concert in St. Mary’s , that was built in 1422. For the first time in its history Arabic music will sound in this Christian place of worship. Who is Barghouti, and what can we expect from her concert with qanun-player Khalil Khoury?
Barghouti grew up in the city of Ramallah, some twenty kilometres north of Jerusalem. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority. Her mother is a sex educator and used to sing in a choir for a hobby, her father is an engineer and human right’s activist. The love for music runs in the family, for her elder sister Jenna studied the violin, and Nai herself enrolled at the Edward Said Conservatoire to study the flute when she was only six years old.
Troubling checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem
This musical background sounds mundane enough, but for Europeans it is hard to imagine what life is like in a country that is eternally under the threat of attack. Was there any such thing as a regular cultural scene she could move in, as we know it in our safe Western cities? ‘It was definitely tough to grow up in a country that was occupied my entire life’, says Barghouti. ‘Many things were far more difficult than in a free country, such as commuting between cities. I lived in Ramallah and studied in Jerusalem, two cities separated by the main checkpoint of Qalandia.’
‘This – illegal – Israeli checkpoint meant it was a true struggle for me each week to get to my classes in Jerusalem. In fact it affects the life of every Palestinian: not being able to move freely we can’t enjoy our home country as we should be able to. Nevertheless, Ramallah was always striving to stay active culturally, so I did get the opportunity to go to concerts. We did have international artists visiting, such as the Gipsy Kings and the percussion ensemble Stomp. Also Akram Khan, one of the biggest modern dance companies, performed there. It has meant the world to me to have been raised in Ramallah.’
Singing and flute playing
However, from early on Barghouti was subjected to oppression and racism, she says: ‘Growing up under military occupation in Ramallah, I experienced humiliation on a daily basis, though far less than Palestinians living in Jerusalem or Gaza.’ When she was 7 years old she was so disturbed by the devastating effects of the ongoing injustice she herself and her people suffered, that she felt she needed to vocalize her feelings through music.
‘I had been singing ever since I was four years old, I loved it’, she remembers. ‘My mother was my first teacher, she taught me many classical Arabic songs.’ However, once she was admitted to the Edward Said Conservatoire she chose to study the flute. Was this perhaps because ‘Nai’ is the name of a flute that is typical of the Middle-East? ‘No, it was rather a random choice, I was very young still and had nothing specific in mind, only that I wanted to study an instrument. So I simply picked the flute and started learning.’
Palestine Youth Orchestra, founded by Edward Said Conservatoire in 2004At the conservatoire she studied Western classical music on her flute for about ten years. But when she had to decide on her advanced studies abroad, she switched over to singing for her major subject. ‘I continued studying the flute as a minor, though.’ When she was 16, in 2013, she auditioned for Bloomington in the United States, where she hoped to complete her bachelor of music. ‘I had been introduced by my sister, who was already studying the violin there. I applied and was accepted. The curriculum focussed on Western classical musical history and theory, but I was eager to learn more about jazz singing.’
Jazz and Arabic music
After two years, Barghouti felt Bloomington was not quite the right place for her, and she decided to move to Amsterdam. ‘This was thanks to one of the visiting professors, Darmon Meader, a jazz singer and saxophonist. He suggested that the Amsterdam Conservatoire might fit in perfectly with what I was aiming for musically.’
‘I enrolled in their jazz department in 2016, where I studied with different teachers. The school offered a lot of diversity in its curriculum and allowed me the space to continue working on my own projects. They welcomed my Arabic music roots and helped me incorporate them in my studies.’
Her interest in jazz had already been kindled at a very young age: ‘As mentioned before, my mother’s hobby used to be choir singing and my sister Jenna played the violin. My father was a choreographer for a while, so I was immersed in all types of music from forever. This ranged from Western, Arabic and Indian classical music to pop or jazz.’
‘I have always felt there was a strong connection between Arabic music and jazz, and was very keen on finding out what exactly this relationship entailed, and how I could incorporate this in my own music. Mind you, though, there is no such thing as one Arabic style or genre. There is an enormous diversity: from Egypt to Lebanon, to Syria, Iraq, North Africa, they all sound very different! I’m interested in all of these styles, but mainly learnt those of Egypt and Lebanon while growing up. There is a strong Palestinian folk tradition as well, some elements of which find their way into my own compositions.’
Barghouti once said she is more interested in the voice itself as an instrument, than in its use for storytelling.’ How are we to understand this? ‘The voice can do so much more than just sing lyrics. – Of course the texts are important, but if you leave them out, the voice can express itself in the way an instrument would, by using certain syllables. For instance in jazz, there is a lot of scat singing, and I wondered how I could use this in Arabic music.’
‘Naistrumenting’
‘In my concerts I explored this idea in my singing, and some of my fans then coined the term ‘naistrumenting’. Nowadays I use the term ‘naistrumentation’ to describe the art of using the voice as an instrument. This means I have an ornamental approach. I ask myself which ornaments in my singing I can employ in an instrumental way to connect to the listener, rather than only use my voice to express the meaning of a text. By the way, this was the subject of the thesis with which I completed my master’s degree in Amsterdam.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBCgEo-pexg
Concertgebouw Young Talent Award and Palestine Youth Orchestra
Winning the Concertgebouw Young Talent Award 2020 was a huge honour, she say: ‘When I came to Amsterdam, one of the very first things I saw was this beautiful concert hall I had been hearing so much about! Online I had watched many performances by incredible artists there, for instance by Aretha Franklin. So it was a dream come true to not only attend concerts live in the Concertgebouw, but to perform there myself. Being given the Concergebouw Young Talent Award was a bonus. It has opened many doors, in the Netherlands and abroad.’
The same goes for the Palestine Youth Orchestra, in which she started out as a flute player and now regularly performs with as a vocalist. ‘The orchestra is very important to all Palestinians, I think. It is one of the few ensembles that emerged from Palestine and has had the opportunity to perform all over the world. It is valuable that Western audiences get a chance to perceive Palestine in a new way: a musical, artistic way, not only political.’
Politics and Identity
‘Playing music is of great importance to us. However, we can’t deny the politics that come with being Palestinians. Even meeting each other as an orchestra is difficult, because of all the different places we come from. This requires an immense lot of administration; it’s impossible to rehearse in Palestine. We must always assemble in Europe or elsewhere, so we only get together before touring. The existence of the Palestine Youth Orchestra is in itself a protest against the occupation. By playing music together we demonstrate we will never give up defying this.’
In her lyrics Barghouti addresses the ongoing difficulties caused by the occupation. Would she call herself an activist performer? ‘Naturally these problems form an intrinsic part of my music, but I wouldn’t call this activist, I would simply call this being a Palestinian. It is who I am, who we are. Even though we don’t show our concerns intentionally, they inevitably seep through our music: we can’t separate ourselves from our identity.’
The power of music
Since her work testifies to the predicament of the Palestinians, does she think music can help change the situation? ‘I do have faith in the power of music, it can raise awareness, create a common language between people. However I don’t think it can solve problems, nor should it be used as a tool to whitewash crimes. But music must speak out about what is going on in the world, be it directly or indirectly, it must be true and honest. In that sense I do believe it can help change the world.’
For the closing concert of the Eratofestival on 7 November she will bring along qanun player Khalil Khoury. ‘Actually I’m really excited about this’, she says. ‘It is the first time we will perform as a duo only, I think the combination of qanun and voice is very beautiful. We will bring a mix of Palestinian music, covers, arrangements of songs we usually play with a larger band, but also some brand new stuff we composed together. We will present many different songs, it will be a concert full of love and hope.’
#ConcertgebouwYoungTalentAward #Eratofestival #KhalilKhoury #NaiBarghouti #PalestineYouthOrchestra
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