مارسيل خليفة (LB)

About

Also known as: Marcel Khalife, Marcel Khalifé, مارسيل خليفة

Marcel Khalife is a Lebanese singer and oud player whose music draws deeply on Arabic poetry, particularly the work of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. His debut album Promesses de la Tempête (Promises of the Storm) became a landmark record, built around themes of love, loss, exile, resistance and hope. Roughly fifty years after that album appeared, Khalife returned to it, reimagining four of its songs in new, intimate arrangements where his voice and the oud carry the full weight of the material. Alongside his music, he is known for his activism. His performances tend to bring poetry and music into close conversation, and the results feel urgent rather than nostalgic, especially when the themes he has always explored seem to echo present realities.