Mohammed Assaf

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Mohammed Assaf 2014

Mohammed Assaf (* 10. September 1989 in Misrata , Libya ) is a Palestinian journalism - student and winner of the second season of the casting competition Arab Idol , which had its finale on June 22, 2013. He grew up in the Gaza Strip .

Assaf's grandparents come from southern Palestine and fled their homeland in 1948 on the occasion of the Israeli war of independence . His father worked as an accountant in Misrata, Libya , and Assaf was born there. When he was four years old, the family moved to a refugee camp in Chan Junis . At the age of six he started singing in a choir . He later made his living as a wedding singer.

To get to the casting in Egypt , he had to bribe Egyptian border officials with money begged from Hamas . The Cairo hotel where the event was taking place was already closed so he climbed over a fence to get inside. All start numbers had already been assigned, but an acquaintance from Saudi Arabia gave up his participation "because he would sing better".

In the final, he prevailed against a candidate from Egypt , which has twenty times the population of the Palestinian Territories . For the vote, which took place by SMS , the Palestinian telephone companies lowered the tariffs and President Mahmoud Abbas called on the representations abroad to persuade the Palestinians in the diaspora to vote. On his triumphant return to the Gaza Strip, Hamas, which disapproved of Western TV shows and non-Islamic songs and had initially condemned Assaf's participation in the competition and launched a Facebook campaign against him, also sent an official from the Ministry of Culture to the border to meet him. 40,000 people came to his first appearance in the West Bank , a free concert in Ramallah .

Immediately after his success at Arab Idol , the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East named Assaf as a “regional youth ambassador for Palestinian refugees”.

Movie

The Dutch-Israeli director Hany Abu-Assad filmed the life of Mohammed Assaf in his film "The Idol" , released in 2015, which was also released in German cinemas at the beginning of December 2016 under the title "A Song for Nour" .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf returns to the Gaza Strip  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. www.news.nom.co; Retrieved June 26, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.news.nom.co  
  2. a b A Superstar for Gaza , N24 online, May 22, 2013.
  3. Gaza welcomes Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf , BBC News Middle East, June 25, 2013.
  4. Palestinian Arab Idol winner receives hero's welcome in Gaza , Haaretz ( Reuters ), June 25, 2013.
  5. Monika Bolliger: Der neue Arabische Superstar , NZZ online from July 3, 2013, accessed on July 4, 2013.
  6. ^ "Arab Idol" Winner Mohammad Assaf named UNRWA Regional Youth Ambassador for Palestine Refugees. June 22, 2013. Retrieved June 26, 2013 .