Description
Souleyman, who has collaborated with Björk and Four Tet, began his career as a prolific wedding singer, releasing nearly 500 live albums before civil war broke out in his native Syria in 2011. He then moved to Turkey and in 2013 released his album Wenu Wenu.
Then in 2015 he released Bahdeni Nami gaining widespread critical praise including The Guardian who proclaimed, “It’s so fast that the only appropriate way to engage with it is to wriggle your limbs. Melodies are both abrasive and ebullient, chattering endlessly like raucous birdsong.”
Souleyman´s third album released June this year, To Syria, With Love, is a departure musically and lyrically from his previous material, with focus on more elaborate keyboard and techno elements. Completely setting politics aside, Souleyman consciously shares this personal ode to his native country with an emphasis on his emotional connection to the land and people but not without heartache in view of the nation’s current state.
“It’s been six years I’ve been away, and I’m tired of looking for home and asking about my loved ones. My soul is wounded and it’s like having dust in my eyes,” Souleyman sings. “We are in exile, and our nights are long. Our homeland is our only comfort. Life caused us so much pain—our wounds are too many and every wound calls out, ‘We miss Al-Jazira’” (Omar’s native region in North-Eastern Syria).
Since its founding in 2013, Souleyman has been an advocate for the charity “Our Heart Aches for Syria,” which operates in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders. In that same year, he performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Norway.
See some videoclips of Omar Souleyman here: Omar Souleyman
“Omar Souleyman is no ordinary musical act; if anything, he’s one of
the most resilient performers you’ll see…”—NPR Music
“…he pitches R&B woo, invoking camelhair scarves and Damascus honeymoons
with ferocious vocal fricatives…”—Rolling Stone
“…there’s something in his stentorian singing that’s irresistible.”—Pitchfork
“…Souleyman is a singular entity of tireless genre exploration.”—CoS
