Renowned singer & songwriter Mustafa recently released his latest single, 'Gaza is Calling', along with accompanying visuals. This piece of work is both the latest addition to his movingly-personal discography, as well as a way to raise awareness and funds for the ongoing crisis in Gaza.
The track was written back in 2020, chronicling the story of one of Mustafa’s childhood friendships that was affected by the kind of violence perpetrated against working-class communities worldwide. More specifically, it looks at the plight of Palestinians, with all profits from the song to be donated to Palestinian’s Children Relief Fund.
Speaking on the track, Mustafa shared, “Gaza is Calling is about my first experience with heartbreak in friendship. I was 11 when I met this boy from Gaza. We were inseparable. With him I shared one of the deepest loves I’ve ever known, he grew up alongside me in a housing project in Toronto. And not even this love was a match for the violence we were up against; the one in our new home, the one that followed him from Gaza like a cold wind. In the end it was all the bloodshed between us that didn’t allow us to see each other without tears appearing, and one of the last notes he sent to me was about how we would continue on in another life. The string sample is the Arabian nostalgia that we share, the auto-tuned Arabic I sing is the balance we tried to reach being boys of cultural empires in a small hood, and the Oud is the instrument of our homelands, Sudan and Palestine.”
The video for ‘Gaza is Calling’ features Palestinian model Bella Hadid, as well as teenage Gazan rapper MC Abdul. First conceptualised by Mustafa and Hadid back in 2021, the video was shot over time, from April 2023 right up to June 2024. This serves as further testament to the timelessness, and timeliness, of its message.
Speaking further about the video, Mustafa said, “I reached out to Bella in 2022 about the Gaza is Calling short film. I wrote a story about a grief that meets you on whatever land you escape to. In it we follow Bella Hadid and Mc Abdul of Gaza as they journey through their grievances. A parallel story of Israa Ahmed and her younger brother plays out. Israa and her brother engage in the ruins & danger of a refugee camp in Palestine as Bella and Abdul engage with memorabilia & guilt in the western world. Hiam Abbas directs. Israa and her brother are still in this camp in Jenin, Palestine today. The hope is that this serves as a stark reminder that every path is ours, every child is ours, & every war is ours to answer for & speak against.”
To donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund head to their website: https://www.pcrf.net/
Check out the video below:
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