Nabil Mansour: rising Palestinian star from Barcelona 

In the vast world of music in the Spanish language, a gifted and talented Palestinian musician is making sure the voice of his people is heard, in a way that in some ways is similar to what Doc Jazz is doing with music in the English language.

 

His name is Nabil Mansour, and his music is sophisticated, easy on the ears, accessible, and rich in its compositions. Doc Jazz has interviewed Nabil, and is proud to introduce him and his music to his audience with great enthusiasm. After listening to some of his songs and reading some of the artist’s own comments about them, you are invited to read more about his background, his thoughts, his motivations and his vision.

 

 

Introducing Nabil Mansour

Nabil is 33 years old, lives in Barcelona and is the son of a father born in Haifa and a mother born in Akka, Palestine. He is a Palestinian born and raised in Spain, where he runs a translation company. There can be no doubt that he is among the most significant Palestinian musicians who are active in Latin music worldwide, and the time has come that more and more people worldwide get acquainted with this musical and linguistic genius.

With his excellent singing voice he is able to reach the hearts of many, and his melodies can be easily felt and embraced. His songs combine musicality with lyrical excellence, and with a strong and clear message that every Spanish-speaking person can understand. In order to widen his audience, subtitles in English are always provided with the many videos of his songs that he has released.

 

Nabil’s music: the song ‘Somos’

His latest song ‘Somos’ is truly impressive, so gripping, the  combination of words and melody are quite powerful.

Nabil: “Somos came up to life in a moment where there was a general feeling in our Palestinian nation worldwide that we are not well represented. It is amazing how did the issue of the refugees just disappear from the agenda of the so called “peace-talks”. Considering 7 of the 11 million Palestinians in the world are refugees, taking them out of the equation of any negotiations is just obscene.

The word “surrender” hits the Palestinian unity so hard that it can actually end with us. Every act of resistance, on the contrary, puts our hands together, and help us resolve all nations crimes, don’t you think Doc?

So Somos is exactly that. A way to express what we are, or what we feel identified with. The martyrs, the refugees, the political prisoners, injustice of judges who play executors at the same time …”

Nabil’s own style: Palestinian folklore songs on acoustic guitar

Nabil has created his own amazing sound by playing Palestinian songs like Ala Dalona on acoustic guitar. Although this unique combination of sounds is a thrilling new way to present these old folklore songs, Nabil is quite modest about it.

“There’s not really so much about it, I guess I was just brave enough to try to do it once, and then I tried it in front of an audience. It came up to be very interesting a combination and had a nice reception, so I keep doing it. The most amazing thing is that sometimes people go dancing dabkah… if they don’t know, I show them the basic steps right before playing the song, and they dance it so happily. It’s most beautiful when you create a communion with people in a concert, it easies delivering the message.

Anyhow, there’s nothing like the original rababeh, mizmar and other typical instruments for the dal3ona songs.”

 

 

Another inspiring song: ‘Aida’

 

“In my last visit to Palestine, I was really amazed by the situation in the refugee camps, and one that impacted me a lot was Aida, in the Bethlehem circumscription. There’s 5,000 refugees living in there, and half of them are little children. The entry gate of that camp is poetry itself: a huge key, representing the Palestinian’s right of return, stands right over a beautiful arch-door. The conviction of those Palestinians that no matter what happens, we will be back to our land, touched me really deep and inspired me for this song, which is fully dedicated to those who still believe in coming back.”

Musical beginnings

Nabil started playing music when he was about 8 years old. “I remember my cousins in Palestine used to play a lot to the typical Arabic keybords and I was very amazed with how huge everything sounded there, so I guess it made me very curious about it, and then I discovered that I had some natural skills for understanding and playing music, so I began to play too. I play the keyboards, piano and guitar, but if you have a good samples library it looks like you do much more than just that in your music, right?”

 

“Music connects me, body and soul, to our reality as Palestinians“

“I grew up as the kind of musician touched by music itself more than the messages behind it. At the beginning, I didn’t really use it as a tool for a determinate purpose, I was just enjoying music for the sake of music. I loved almost every single style, pop, rock, rap, heavy-metal, jazz, swing, classical Arabic, modern Arabic,… and it was all really about having fun with it. I played covers for almost everything I liked, and I began composing quite early, let’s say at 15 years old more or less. My mind was filled with melodies, chords, II-V-I’s, arrangements and sounds of all kinds.

Then I slowly began a transition that would experience its completeness when the Gaza attack took place. From then on, all of my music has been composed, designed and intended to talk about our cause, mostly in Spanish, but also in English, Arabic and Catalan.

I was really overwhelmed by the reception I got. Suddenly I was travelling all over Spain to play in concerts at demonstrations, pubs, bars, theatres, festivals, and some months later I was travelling overseas with my music.

I have not even finished and released my album, I have no manager whatsoever, and I’m actually touring around, which is the dream come true for any musician. I guess the new technologies and specially the internet had a lot to do with that. And at the same time, it feels great to use music to be connected, body and soul, to our reality as Palestinians.”

 

Big mix of influences

 

“My style is a big mix of all of the influences that I have. I will forget many of them by saying only a few, but I’ll give it a shot: Sting who was one of my first influences, Farid el Atrash with his astonishing mastery of the Oud and haunting melodies, Amr Diab who inspired my way of singing in Arabic, Sheikh Imam for going to the origins and learning pure lessons, David Coverdale of Whitesnake with his incredibly wide harmonic range and tremendous voice-swing.

Then of course Bill Evans, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, all those jazz classics. Jazz is huge. Ricardo Arjona, probably the most amazing Spanish singing poet I have ever listened to, and Luis Llach, the Catalonian symbol, a singer who stood up against Franco when no one else dared to. And of course a big bunch of Palestinian artists beginning from Abu Arab and ending in the great singers and groups like Ahmad Qaabour, Wallaat, Amal Murkus, Habib al Deek, Khalas, DAM, Sabrin and all of those popular dabkeh songs like dal3ona and so.”

Palestinian in the diaspora of Spain

“People tend to ask me why I say I’m Palestinian if I was not born there. I guess my best answer is to tell them that in order to live life it is suitable to look forward, but if you want to understand it, you definitely have to look behind. In my opinion, those dozens of generations that preceded me shape my identity more than the accident of where I was born. Therefore, I like to talk about myself as a Palestinian born in the diaspora of Spain. I was lucky enough to have parents extremely concerned about education so I grew up learning our Arabic language, our Palestinian songs and culture, and of course, I learnt about our cause.”

Palestine: memories, friends and a huge family

“I always keep going to Palestine, where I have lots of memories, some friends and a huge, huge family. My connection to Palestine is essentially Al Jalil (Galilea), at the north, because most of my family both on the behalf of my dad and my mum are living in cities like Akka, Majd Kroum, Abu Snan or Jdaidi, so that is my normal destination to be when I go to my beloved land. I have been to Palestine 11 times now, so I know quite a lot of places.

Anyhow, I always find a spot on my agenda to go to Jerusalem and visit the ancient Arabic neighbourhood, the Dome of the Rock, the Al Aqsa mosque and other great locations there. I also have been to most of the West Bank, visiting Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin (where I also have some family), Ramallah, Hebron and of course, several refugee camps like Aida, Shufaat or Askar.”

“I’m pretty ambitious about delivering my message“

“I play live almost every week. So far I’ve played in small pubs, theatres, universities, TV sets, radio stations, halls, etc.

So far the media coverage for my music has been fine, but still, I always like to empower this aspect of my projection. I’m pretty ambitious about delivering my message as widely as I can. Lots of people now consume the internet, but the TV and the radio are still great ways to reach everyone, so no doubt I’ll be working in this direction as well. Magazines and newspaper interviews are and will continue to be in the pack as well.”

The Palestinian Cause has to be a worldwide global phenomenon

“Not to loose focus: it was, it is and it will always be basic to keep doing good meaningful songs, but the most important thing for me is live shows. I want to keep improving delivering straight, electric, energetic concerts to my audience. I want to see full venues wherever I sing. And since the very first moment of a concert until the end, I want everybody in, and when the concert is over and everyone goes home, I want them to be thinking things such as “Palestinians deserve full support”, or “How can the negligence of the International Community be accepted?”, or even better, “I want to join some organisation to pressure our local representatives to do something about it”.

I want support to the Palestinian cause to be as popular as it can get to be everywhere. I want to act as a channel for all those who still didn’t decide, but feel like joining a BDS local campaign group. Or all those who didn’t still make their minds, but feel like supporting initiatives like the Spanish ships to Gaza that will be sailing on may, again (www.rumboagaza.org).

I play for the young and the old, men and women, everybody, no exception. We need active solidarity. I search for active solidarity. After a concert, I like to spend as much time as any fan wants to talk about what’s happening in Palestine, history, latest news, future, ways to act, etc.

Then, I want to have great collaborations with the best musicians, anyone who is close to the Palestinian cause and has an audience behind him, I look forward to sing or compose songs with him/her. They are leaders of opinion among their audiences. If they sing for our cause, it’s a blessing. I hope to get them as much involved as possible into our struggle. I want the Palestinian Cause to be a worldwide global phenomenon, not a local, or a regional matter.”

Nabil has many more songs, and they can easily be heard on Youtube. Click here and check it out!