Singing: Offshoot of Resistance Literature

Since poetry strikes a flowery and cheerful note to bestow zestful feelings to the heart and mind, singing has the power to clad in poetry with more ecstasy.

At present, singing has the influence to make the poetry of resistance more predominant because poetry marries singing to become a popular garden to which all people resort.

In the late fifties, singing for resistance could be simply viewed as the golden era where the Arab masses used to chirp harmoniously spelling out the renunciation of colonial schemes and welcoming the advent of the Arab unity.

When the tripartite aggression on Egypt took place, Syria took the lead along with the Arab masses to defend it, and the art of resistance emerged to be an active player in combating colonialism and its tools.

The Arab masses have witnessed lofty moments coupled with reverberating songs of  top-notch  singers (keep your weapon ready) by Abdulhalim Hafez and ( Allah is all dominant over aggressors).        When the Palestinian resistance flared up demonstrating heroic epics, Um Kalthoum chanted (I have got a rifle). Fairouz jolted the Arab ears with her song ( Jerusalem), which was and will always be (the most prominent minaret).

As the Arabs achieved landslide victories in Tishreen Liberation war, Sharifa  Fadel sang (I am the hero`s mother). Further credit to be made to Dalal Al Shimali for her song (I`m looking over Kasioun) which was an example of the resistance songs.

The next stage was characterized by a strong feeling of dignity and pride brought back by Tishreen liberation war. Arabism was vivid only theoretically away from the actual political landscape.

The Arab art came to know a new pattern of body singing where all senses are entwined to produce such originality.

As the civil war broke out in Lebanon, the star of Marcel Khalifa dawned to sing for man and land, where his songs portrayed the inseparable attachment to land. He taught the Arab resistance how to walk upright (self –assured).

From the poetic constellation of Mahmoud Darwish, Marcel Khalifa utilized the olive branch metaphorically to use the dead wood later as a coffin to hide his devotion to land and categorically denying kowtowing to usurpers.

Ordinary people learnt that land is the most precious treasure on earth that safeguards the causes and woes of people.

In his song (the lover of Beirut), he used love as a weapon to express the sense of belonging and devotion. The serene song imbued with love broke all confines of the tobacco fields that flared up in the face of the Israel occupation.  Being a vocalized freedom lover, Marcel refused to sit on the fence but defying all bitter shackles.

Former heroes are always present in the Arab memory and of history could never eclipse great luminaries such as Yusuf Al Azmeh and Maruf Saad

Marcel Khalifa, a man of words and deeds, allocated large sums of his parties proceeds to rehabilitate southern Lebanon. During the aggression on Lebanon, he released a statement exposing the swerving stands of some wobbly people who feared the masses as much as they feared the truth.

Marcel Khalifa, who expressed lucid love to man and land, is a visionary landmark in an era of  obscurantism.

Firas Taleb

Edited& Translated: Mamoun Abdin