Melbourne Town Hall was packed on a Tuesday night for the Australian live debut of Palestinian pop star Saint Levant. Known offstage as Marwan Abdelhamid, he performed to an adoring crowd on 2 June, alluding in both English and Arabic to feeling unable to speak his mind. His stage name is a spin on the luxury brand Yves Saint Laurent, and he arrived in an opulent double-breasted white suit. Cries of longing echoed through the hall: 'Marwaaaann!'
A Blend of Cultures and Sounds
Born in Jerusalem to a Palestinian Serbian father and an Algerian French mother, Abdelhamid sings and rhymes in Arabic, English, and French over smooth pop R&B that mixes vintage synth aesthetics with Levantine percussion and modern North African Raï music influences. Much of his music concerns love, longing, and aspiration, but in 2026, with Gaza still under Israeli occupation, his work reflects darker realities. As Nesrine Malik wrote in a recent profile: 'A singer who was of Palestine, but broke with the sobriety of expression about it, was a shock to the system in a way that was invigorating and scandalising.'
An Ecstatic Crowd
Zaghrouta calls rang out as the first beats ushered his arrival. Lebanese flags waved in one section, keffiyehs in another. Melbourne's Arab diaspora turned up ready to party. Abdelhamid opened with 2024's On This Land, which mixes dabke rhythms with his bittersweet croon. The track was inspired by a clip filmed after 7 October, showing journalists in Gaza singing Sawfa Nabqa Hawa by Libyan singer Adel el-Mshiti. Its title and Arabic section draw from a poem by Mahmoud Darwish; other lyrics describe Abdelhamid's discomfort with code-switching while recognizing its necessity to spread his message beyond the Arabic-speaking world.
Politics Meets Pop
Despite the political weight, Abdelhamid delivered even his most political songs with the casual poise of a heart-throb. Even slight hand gestures elicited screams from the crowd, who waved desperately to attract his attention. His band leaned into laid-back funk takes on his national pride anthem Daloona and the unrequited love of Wazira. Fans sent hand heart signs during a slow jam of his early hit Very Few Friends. He slipped a saxophone over his shoulder, channeling George Michael's Careless Whisper, and by the time he reached 2025's Exile, he was fully embodying the drama with light vocoder effects. The crowd sang the chorus of Deira back to the stage.
Solidarity and Subtlety
Throughout the show, Abdelhamid made subtle and overt calls for solidarity between Arab nations and oppressed peoples elsewhere. He acknowledged those suffering in conflicts in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Congo, and Sudan. Even covering Law Hobna Ghalta by Lebanese singer Wael Kfoury felt like a nod of solidarity as Israel continued bombing Lebanon. During a break, he alluded to feeling unable to speak his mind: 'I can't speak because I want to be with you,' perhaps referencing backlash against artists who criticize Israel and the US. The crowd responded with a chant: 'Free! Free! Palestine!'
Surprise Finale
The set list zagged back to pop with his new single Sabah El Ward, released at the end of last month, which the crowd already knew by heart. When a fan in the front row fainted, he stopped the music and handed his own water bottle down. Toward the end, CDJs were wheeled onstage, and the DJ—revealed to be Abdelhamid's father, the architect and former owner of Gaza's Al Deira hotel, which was bombed by Israeli forces—played a Shakira remix, clearly ecstatic to join his son on stage. Abdelhamid returned for an encore, an uninterrupted rerun of Sabah El Ward, which the crowd devoured even more rapturously than the first time. They left with hearts full, back into the cold Melbourne night.
Saint Levant is playing Melbourne Town Hall on 4 June as part of Rising festival; at City Recital Hall in Sydney on 6 and 7 June as part of Vivid festival; and at Princess Theatre in Brisbane on 8 June.
