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Sada (Echo): Music from Palestine
Friday 6 June 2025, 7.30pm
Barbican Hall
Tickets from £25 plus booking fee

Rola Azar, Dana Salah and DAM join for Sada (Echo): Music from Palestine - a new performance that marks the return of Shubbak Festival to the Barbican Hall. Where music is resistance, three striking Palestinian voices come together to forge a powerful collaboration, merging their collective backgrounds and memoirs for a special performance on Friday 6 June. 

A distinguished singer and producer, Rola Azar is renowned for her captivating voice and dedication to preserving and revitalising traditional Palestinian music. Her performances are characterised by a unique blend of folklore and contemporary elements. 

Dana Salah is a dynamic singer, songwriter, and producer who seamlessly blends her rich heritage with contemporary influences. Her signature Falahi Pop sound blends Arabic folklore with global influences such as reggaeton.

DAM is the pioneering voice of Palestinian hip-hop, blending powerful lyricism with Arabic rhythms and hard-hitting beats. 

With a wealth of talent and dedicated performances, this night echoes the spirit of the Palestinian people, and the stories that unite the community. The evening will continue in the Barbican foyers with a DJ set and a closing soundscape of electronica and dance featuring a soon-to-be-announced special guest.

Produced by the Barbican in association with MARSM. Part of Shubbak.
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Naseer Shamma
Sunday 15 June 2025, 7.30pm
Barbican Hall 
Tickets from £30 plus booking fee

One of the world’s leading oud players and composers, multi-instrumentalist Naseer Shamma returns for a solo performance in the Barbican Hall this summer. Shamma joins a host of celebrated artists from across the globe in honouring contemporary Arab culture for this year’s biennial Shubbak Festival – the UK’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture.

Having shared the stage with symphony orchestras on many occasions, particularly in his program El Cuidado de una esencia, which combines classical and flamenco music, Naseer’s latest performance at the Barbican will be an opportunity to see him perform in a more intimate format. Audiences can nevertheless still expect Shamma to embrace diverse musical styles and traditions from cultures and genres as distinct as Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, Persian and Indian through to jazz and Latin music. 

Born in Al-Kut, a southern city in Iraq, Naseer’s lifelong dedication to the oud has seen both him, and the craft of his instrument, rise to international distinction. A graduate of the Baghdad Academy of Music, he was awarded the prize of artistic excellence by the Arab Thought Foundation and named as a UNESCO Artist for Peace. Naseer’s acclaimed approach to playing the oud, which spans both ancient and contemporary techniques, has become the foundation of renowned ensembles and projects, including Cairo’s House of Oud and Oyoun, the prominent Arabic chamber music ensemble.

Produced by the Barbican in association with MARSM. Part of Shubbak.
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