Saint Levant and what qualifies as 'good' Arabic music

In most Levantine cities, a distinct pop culture known as 'high society' occupies the upper socioeconomic spectrum. Wealthy, westernized, English- and French-speaking, this group is familiar with Western culture and treats it as a shared reference point. Their music preference includes glossy, English-language pop, R&B, and hip-hop with global production values, while Arabic pop is only used when smoothed into something radio-friendly and cosmopolitan—Arabic music à la Western.

Closer to village weddings, there is another group with a more conservative social norm and attachment to tradition. Their music is rooted in folk traditions—dabke rhythms, wedding songs, the exuberant, unpolished, and deeply local sound of mahrajanat and shaabi—and is popular within their group but rarely with the westernized group. This divide is a classic example of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of 'good taste' used to mark and defend class boundaries, dressing up class judgment as artistic judgment.

Saint Levant, a Palestinian singer-songwriter, fits this pop culture almost perfectly with his multilingual, melodic, and code-switching style between English, French, and Arabic. His early music was in line with what his audience loved—Western and Westernized Arabic pop. However, his recent shift toward folk and traditional forms, such as shaabi rhythms and mahrajanat energy, was met with surprising enthusiasm from his audience.

A recent concert in Amman filled with the first group's members, dressed like a folk wedding, enthusiastically sang along and danced to his folk songs. Later, the artist collaborated with a guest performer from the traditional world, and the crowd, once uninterested in folk music, sang along.

The 'westernized' group suddenly embraced this genre due to the 'passport effect.' Once Saint Levant established himself as fluent in their language, his later move into unfamiliar territory was read as an artistic choice rather than an identity change. This phenomenon is seen with other artists as well, such as Egyptian singer and rapper Tul8te. His folk-infused music, dismissed by the 'westernized' group, has gained real affection from them. It begs questions about the future of musical tastes in this dual-pop culture.