The Narrative-Changing Power of Arts and Culture Starring Elyanna & Saint Levant

Building on my earlier piece about the upcoming tsunami level wave from our dear friends in the often overlooked arts & culture segment of society, a couple acts you’ll hear more about in the coming years will be two Palestinian artists. To be more specific, Elyanna is Palestinian-Chilean and Saint Levant is–are you ready for this?–Palestinian-Algerian-French-Serbian.

Judging by the long list of Latin x Reggaeton artists representing the global south, the list representing the refugee Arab community will only grow, thanks mainly to systemic changes to how music gets produced & distributed to the masses and sadly, all the unnecessary wars created by western powers.

This will sound a bit controversial to some readers, but if it wasn’t for the slave trade industry that launched America into the big leagues of global capitalism and the military industrial complex that maintains it’s hegemonic position in the modern-day big leagues, we’d all be listening to Frank Sinatra-copycats. What I’m trying to say is that when somebody’s homeland gets bombed to shreds, their families are forced to move and it just so happens that most of them move to either Europe, Canada or the United States of America.

Enough about big leagues of capitalism and painful mass migration trends linked to colonialism-fueled wars–let’s talk about the big leagues of the music industry. One major player in all this is music mogul-extraordinaire Wassim “SAL” Slaiby and his esteemed status as founder & CEO of the 2021-launched label Universal Arabic Music in partnership with Republic Records and Universal Music Group. Back in 2022, LA Times did a great piece on Slaiby’s massive ambitions, and not to mention his natural abilities when it comes to picking winners in the world of crossover Arabic music. To further drive home Slaiby’s magical abilities, take a look at the names of artists he manages–you’ll find pretty much the who’s-who of modern-day hit makers including the Weeknd, Doja Cat, Elyanna, Saint Levant, Nicki Minaj, French Montana, Bebe Rexha, Ty Dolla Sign, Massari, M.I.A., Metro Boomin, Swedish House Mafia and many others.

I think it goes without saying that Slaiby will hit a few more grand slams with regards to launching some Arabic-A-listers to western audiences. Regardless of what he accomplishes, he has done enough to sound a very lucrative alarm. What I mean is that all his success will only inspire healthy competition in this growing niche and further fan the flames of more & more crossover Arabic artists getting launched.

Back to my point about the sheer power of the coming arts & culture wave. This was in full display at a sold-out album launch event for Elyanna at The Wiltern in Los Angeles late last month. Directly below is her new hit single Ganeni from her new album Woledto.

During the LA show Elyanna had a number of surprise guest appearances, one of whom was none other than Saint Levant. The venue literally exploded as he came on stage to perform his hit single Deira (my ears are still ringing; clip is below). Other surprise acts included Issam AlNajjar performing Hadal Ahbek, Massari featured on stage with Elyanna for two songs, Ana Lahale and Real Love.

Elyanna and Saint Levant are a special breed of newcomers. They bring some much-needed freshness to the industry. They are both oozing with tremendous amounts of authenticity. They have unique stories to tell and thankfully, they both want to tell it in a way musical stories haven’t been told to Americans before.

In Elyanna there’s a 22-year-old singer-songwriter who attended Torrey Pines high school in the bougie suburbs of San Diego, of all places. As for Saint Levant, he attended UC Santa Barbara. Both understand American culture, while remaining very confident of their own expansive roots. It’s these particular roots that will set them apart from all the other music and it will be the algorithms on Spotify, YouTube & iTunes that will serve as the the wind in their respective sails. I wish them all the luck.

Over the next few months, I’ll dig around for more arts & cultural successes that will undoubtedly change the old orientalist narratives that have played over and over again through the years. We must do everything in our power to support the new acts and play a critical role in strengthening this cultural tsunami as it tears down old narratives.