Mhanna kicked out of Festival in Algeria

Syrian singer Nour Mhanna has been kicked out of the 5th Jamila Festival in the city of Sétif, North of Algeria. The announcement came after audiences – who were mostly young men- incessantly jeered at the artist after he took the stage on Saturday night, July23rd. The audience’s reaction came from anger over the artist performing for them while his own country is in a state of frenzy and facing massacres from their own army.  The “Send me a reply” singer never imagined that events would escalate to this level and he would be kicked out of the Roman theatre, especially since he was introduced at the beginning as the singer giving the finale performance. Although Mhanna could not sing properly due to the non-stop whistling and chanting demanding he exit the stage, he did sing two of his songs; “Send me a reply” and “Allah yeammar beitak.”  One of the protestors said, “we don’t want a singer who performs when his country is burning.” Eventually, the audience’s demands were realized, especially after the synchronized chants of “leave.. leave,” which resulted in Mhanna quickly leaving the stage.  The audience described Mhanna as ‘pro Bashar Al Assad regime’, which has oppressed and killed protestors in Hama, Hums and Daraa.