Paris and Oslo show solidarity with Beirut in two concerts

In solidarity with Beirut, and in support of its artists affected by the explosion that affected it on August 4, each of the cities of Paris and Oslo will host two artistic concerts.
These two parties are organized by the Oslo art festivals, from which the “Beirut and Beyond” originate, which are the artistic festivals that are held annually in Lebanon. The first concert will take place at the “Medina Theater” on Sunday night the 4th of this month, in cooperation with the “Tune Fork” studios in Beirut. Proceeds from the concert will go towards supporting artists and creative people in Lebanon, including musicians, technologists, musicians and others. The ceremony itself will be shown on October 27 as part of the Oslo Art Festivals activities held in Norway in support of Beirut. Excerpts from it will be selected to open the festival, which is organized by international artists and musicians.
In Paris, Bashar Khalifa will perform some of his well-known songs, especially from his latest album “Off On”. As for Yasmine Khayyam, she will sing a lot of her songs, while Heik Sari Koiomedjian, the Lebanese-Armenian duduk, will present her compositions. The ceremony will be recorded and shown on Facebook starting at eight in the evening.
Parallel to the two aforementioned parties, a solidarity program is organized with creative talents from Lebanon. And this program, which is overseen by “Beirut & Beyond” with an artistic committee, is approved to select the 10 best musical works for the competitors.
Amani Samaan, a media official for festivals in Beirut and beyond, explains that the aid will by its nature include financial, administrative and marketing support. He added in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat: “This program is based on four basic stages, which include creativity, production, registration and affiliation with the Association for Artistic Rights (SASIM). We will also contribute to the management of the concerts of the artists selected by the committee, which will be held in Beirut ”.
Samaan says the goal of this program is to motivate the talented Lebanese artist to persevere in his work without losing hope or feeling frustrated in the harsh conditions he is going through after the Beirut explosion. And he continues: “There are artists who have lost their musical instruments, others have damaged their studies, others have hit their homes where they work. We will shake their hands and encourage them to continue on their way with confidence. We adhere to the implementation of the works of these artists in Beirut to move the wheel of artistic life there. The committee that oversees the program is made up of various artists, including Yasmine Hamdan, Khayyam Al-Lami, Rasha Salah, Lara Khoury, Alexandra and Arshita Stollen, director of the Oslo art festivals.
The door to join this program, which began on October 2, will remain open for a full month. Amani Samaan comments: “We did not want Beirut to stop bringing joy to its people or to lose its role as a cultural pioneer in the region. From this point of view, we will organize concerts with the winners of this program during the months of January (January) and February (February) 2021 ».