Once Upon a Time In Palestine

Moneim Adwan - Chat El Bahr / منعم عدوان - شط البحر

Moneim Adwan - Saher Al Hawa / منعم عدوان - ساحر الهوى

Moneim Adwan - Law Ani Moughani / منعم عدوان - لو أني مغني

Moneim Adwan - Ana Darwiche / منعم عدوان - انا درويش

Moneim Adwan - Douzeni / منعم عدوان - دوزني

Moneim Adwan - Seba Nejmat / منعم عدوان - سبع نجمات

Moneim Adwan composer, ud player, singer and Palestinian musicologist, was born in Rafah in the Gaza Strip in 1970. He started to sing since he was a child, the popular and the classical Arabic repertoire and was taught to the koranic cantillation by his father. When he was 17 years old, he started to play ud and went a few years after, to the University of Tripoli (Libya) where he obtained a masters degree in musicology with the professors Fateh el-Ramiz (vocal) and Abdallah Sebaï (‘Ûd). After a tour in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Iraq, he began to work in 1994 for various events organized by the new Palestinian government, the Ministry of Culture, the theater and the cinema until January 2000 where he created an opening music in Bethlehem.

He settled in France a few months ago. Since 1999, he recorded 3 discs in France:  Chicha (meeting with the musician Michel Montanaro and the Provencal music), Nawah (meeting with the singer Françoise Atlan and the Sephardic songs), Motayem (meeting with Pêcheurs de Perles and the Iraqi music). In 2004, he sang in the Festival of Sacred Music in Morrocco. In the same year, he recorded Once upon a time in Palestine.

Moneim’s songs are creations inspired by the traditional Palestinian musical heritage and the classical Arabic repertoire. His lyrics are about his homeland, the everyday life of the Palestinian people, about love. His compositions place him in a very ancient tradition that he reinvests and renews in a country where oppression and fear made reconstruction and hope disappear. His warm voice, sometimes strong and sometimes tender, is the most beautiful instrument to deliver a message of love and humanity among war and chaos.

Moneim would like to show the soul and the Palestinian philosophy through the classical Arabic repertoire Taha and through his own compositions on texts by Darwish, Ibn Arabi, Rûmi… His last meetings with the Sephardic singer Françoise Atlan (Nawah) and the band Pêcheurs de Perles (Motayem) have resulted in great exchanges rich in sonorities and meaning. He worked too with Bernard Foccroulle, Maria Cristina Kiehr (Concerto Soave), Hala Omram (Rithmus) in the Arab Spring (tour in Jordan, Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar...), Sofie Vanden Eynde  et Clare Wilkinson (Divine Madness, souls in exile) and opens for Erik Truffaz Quartet at l'Olympia in Paris.

In 2013, he recorded his new Cd Jasmin and Divine Madness, souls in exile with Sofie Vanden Eynde and Clare Wilkinson. He recorded in the same year a Cd with his choir Le Choeur Multiculturel Ibn Zaydoun.

In 2014, in collaboration with the festival d'Art Lyrique of Aix-en-Provence, he composed the music of  the opera "The Dove, the Fox and the Heron" fable from the collection "Kalila w Dimna". This opera directed by Olivier Le Tellier "

In 2018 he composed the music of  the opera orfeo and al majnon with festival of la monnaie de munt in bruxelles .

In 2018 he composed the music of the opera :
The Conference of the Birds in the collaboration with the festival d’Art lyrique of Aix provence.

In 2021 he composed the music of the film (Habiba )

Moneim Adwan - Douzeni / منعم عدوان - دوزني

Moneim Adwan Official ©™