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Artist
Jowan Safadi
12+ albums
palestineisraeliIsraelarabicPalestinian
about
Jowan Safadi is a unique Palestinian musician, from Nazareth. Who lives in Haifa and produces alternative Arabic music with various influences. For 8 years, he lead the band “Lenzez” as a singer, songwriter and guitarist. Lenzez was an alternative hafla-rock band that split up in late 2007, leaving us with three tremendous studio albums and a great anticipation for more. Despite Jowan Safadi’s (b. 1973) longstanding relationship with music, Palestinian cultural circles have only recently began to recognize the artist, who just released his first solo album, Namroud (Troublemaker). His relocation to Bir al-Sabah (Beersheba) — where he set up the alternative rock band Lenzez with anti-Zionist Israeli musicians — was enough to keep this son of Nazareth in the shadows for some time. “I never felt like my colleagues in the band were Israelis; they were leftists, and possessed a high level of political awareness. They refused to serve in the military and abhorred the occupation establishment,” Jowan told Al-Akhbar. He released three albums in 10 years with Lenzez, before some political parties in Israel began marketing the band as a model for “coexistence,” as a PR stunt in international art and media forums. At the time — around the bloody Israeli invasion of Jenin — Jowan decided to step up his political songs, which gave the band an “extremist” reputation among Israelis. “It was the beginning of an awakening that helped me re-establish reality in my head, especially with my
