French novelist Victor Hugo once said: “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent”. Art, in all its forms, has always impacted individuals and society, whether through literature, paintings, sculptures, dance etc., but as far as I am concerned, I think that throughout history, music has been the most leading kind of art.

Music comes in many types and genres and can be delivered in various ways. Songs are performed in almost all the languages of the world to be accessible to many around the globe. In fact, music has been used during wars and protests both as entertainment and propaganda. Rock & roll artists such as Jimmy Hendrix, John Lennon, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Cranberries, and even soul singer Aretha Franklin, have all written timeless songs related to war and peace. The song “Zombies” by The Cranberries was written after the Irish Republican Army detonated two bombs in the English town of Warrington in 1993. In an interview in 2017, O’Riordan, lead vocalist and lyricist of the alternative rock band The Cranberries, stated the following: “There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that’s why there’s that line in the song, “a child is slowly taken”. 

This shows that music is a tool to portray the sour reality of war while politicians try their best to shift the facts in a way that feeds their personal interests and political agenda. As a matter of fact, this could be assimilated to the actual situation in Palestine. The Western media is trying to brainwash people and switch the roles of the oppressed and the oppressor, through shadow-banning for instance and shifting the narrative over the news, but the one thing they cannot twist is music. For example, Elian Marjieh, also known as “Elyanna”, is a Palestinian-Chilean singer and songwriter who is working on raising awareness through her music. With her brother, she recently wrote a song under the name of “Olive branch”, a very thoughtful title that displays the most powerful symbol of the Palestinian identity: the olive tree. The roots of the olive trees represent the attachment to the land while their branches represent the forced displacement from it. Elyanna sheds light through her lyrics on the passiveness of the First World nations towards the genocide as she mentions in her song, “The world is sleeping on a hurt child”. In addition, literature has often been combined with music to create a more powerful impact on people. Victor Hugo’s novel “Les Misérables” has been turned into a movie featuring the song “do you hear the people sing”, which Curt Potter refers to as a “rallying cry for revolution”. During the 1960s and the 70s, music was not only used to protest against the Vietnam war, but also to advocate for peace. The song “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival draws attention to the fact that only privileged people who are fortunate enough benefit from military services. Moreover, the Rahbani Brothers, two well-known Lebanese songwriters, wrote “Beirut Set El Dunia” a very patriotic song performed by Majida Al Roumi in which she orders Beirut to “get up from under the rubbles” and insists on the fact that “the revolution is born from the womb of sorrows”.

Music was and will always remain the ultimate weapon against governments and the voice of the oppressed when all other means of expression fail.