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When Art Meets Politics: The Arab Artist, Public Opinion, and the Crowd | An original article by Avi Melamed.
The annual music festival held in Carthage, Tunisia, produced an incident this year that has reverberated across Arab public discourse.
During a performance by Lebanese singer Elissa, a member of the audience unexpectedly threw a Palestinian keffiyeh toward her on stage. Elissa appeared momentarily confused, declined to drape it around herself, and tossed it back toward the audience.
The gesture immediately triggered criticism across Arabic-language social media. Critics accused Elissa of showing disrespect toward Palestinians and the Palestinian cause. Tunisian politicians called for her to be barred from performing at festivals in Tunisia. Others argued that her action was not only an insult to the Palestinian cause but also an affront to the Tunisian people.
Some commentators claimed that Elissa’s reaction should come as no surprise, pointing to what they described as her support for peace with Israel. Their argument referred to a February 2021 interview in which she said she supported peace with every country. “I am surprised,” Elissa said, “because for all these years we were told that Israel is the enemy, and now they are talking about an agreement with it. I support peace with every country.”
The incident opens a window onto a complex and emotionally charged triangle in the Arab world: artists, politics, and public opinion.
Fairuz: When Even Silence Becomes Political
An excellent example is another Lebanese singer, Fairuz—born Nuhad Haddad—one of the Arab world’s greatest cultural icons.
Throughout her long career, Fairuz, now 92, has consistently refrained from publicly expressing opinions on Lebanese politics. Yet precisely because of her silence, admirers and political actors have repeatedly attempted to assign political meaning to her actions—or her refusal to act.
In December 2013, her son, Ziad Rahbani, claimed that his mother “loves Hassan Nasrallah,” then the leader of Hezbollah. The statement caused an uproar in Lebanon and across the Arab world. Inevitably, Nasrallah and Hezbollah sought to capitalize politically on the remark.
Fairuz’s daughter, Rima, quickly issued a denial, saying that claims attributed to her mother were baseless and emphasizing that, as everyone knew, Fairuz had imposed upon herself a longstanding public silence.
Fairuz’s admirers who opposed Hezbollah, in turn, interpreted Rima’s statement as evidence that the singer did not support the organization.
In other words, even Fairuz’s refusal to enter the political arena became subject to political interpretation.
Marcel Khalife: When the Political Gesture Wins Applause
A contrasting example involves another celebrated Lebanese artist, Marcel Khalife.
During a performance at another Tunisian festival in 1986, Khalife wrapped himself in the Palestinian flag. The audience responded with thunderous applause, and the gesture, predictably, further enhanced his popularity.
The contrast is revealing. A political gesture that resonates with prevailing public sentiment can strengthen an artist’s standing. A gesture—or even an ambiguous reaction—perceived as violating that sentiment can have precisely the opposite effect.
The Artist, the Regime, and the Crowd
Egyptian film critic Tarek al-Shennawi addresses this complicated relationship between the artist, politics, and public opinion.
There is a natural tendency, he argues, for people to expect artists—particularly famous ones—to express views similar, if not identical, to their own. Regarding the Palestinian issue, al-Shennawi notes that an artist who fails to express support or identification with the Palestinians risks being branded a traitor or a foreign agent.
But he identifies another dimension as well: the artist’s relationship with political power.
Some artists align themselves with the authorities because they genuinely support them. Others follow for pragmatic reasons—either because they do not want to risk confrontation with the regime or because they do not want to leave the stage entirely to competing artists who openly identify with those in power.
In much of the Arab world, al-Shennawi argues, artists must remain acutely aware of the political environment. Failure to do so can expose them to pressure or persecution.
Many artists therefore attempt to remain neutral. Yet neutrality itself can be dangerous when the issue involved is perceived as a matter of national or popular consensus. On such issues, refusing to take a position can sometimes damage an artist’s reputation just as much as taking the “wrong” one.
There is, in other words, another red line the Arab artist must carefully navigate: the emotions of the crowd.
The controversy surrounding Elissa illustrates precisely this dynamic. Her brief reaction to a keffiyeh thrown onto a stage was transformed almost instantly into a political statement—regardless of whether she intended it as one.
As al-Shennawi concludes, the claim that art and politics exist in separate spheres does not withstand reality. The relationship between them is intimate, complicated, and often unavoidable.
This article is also available as a Podcast: the AiTME Podcast. This Podcast was written and created by Avi Melamed, Middle East Intelligence Analyst and Founder of Inside The Middle East [ITME], an institute dedicated to apolitical, non-partisan education about the Middle East.
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When Art Meets Politics: The Arab Artist, Public Opinion, and the Crowd | An original article by Avi Melamed.
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