Jewish Israeli singer of Moroccan origin Lala Tamar and Moroccan-born musician Said Tichiti brought a taste of North African melodies to the heart of Hungary.
Lala Tamar was invited to hold a concert during the Budapest Jewish Cultural Festival in September, which focused on “Tuning in to the joy of life.”
Born in Israel to Brazilian-Moroccan parents, the singer combines traditional Jewish Moroccan music with modern Arabic and Gnawa music (a combination of Moroccan and West African Islamic religious songs). During the concert she hosted Tichiti, founder of the Budapest-based band Chalaban.
The concert was held in the city’s new impressive House of Music, inaugurated at the beginning of the year and built with the purpose of combining a concert hall with a museum, a library and spaces devoted to education.
The event also paid homage to the second anniversary of the Abraham Accords, which saw several Arab countries, including Morocco, normalizing their relations with Israel.
“The beauty of music is that it can serve as an instrument of connecting different peoples and cultures; Jews, Arabs, Christians and Muslims,” said Israeli Ambassador to Hungary Yacov Hadas-Handelsman.
“Moreover, music is a powerful tool that has a way of reaching into our hearts and sometimes transforming the way we see certain cultures and traditions,” he added.