Welcome to (Is)Really Good (Pales)Tunes! Two very poor puns for one very excellent playlist, containing no less than eighty sweet, sweet Middle Eastern bangers.

Oftentimes, music can be used to heal divides, or at least to lessen their effect. This can be seen literally in the music of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a legendary orchestra formed as an exercise in Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, as with the Idan Raichel Project, a collaboration between Israeli producer Idan Raichel and various artists/contributors from around the Middle East and the wider world. The same, obviously, goes for an epic Disney singalong between me and a Palestinian friend (unfortunately, as of yet unavailable on Spotify).

And while music is common ground which can act to transcend conflict, it doesn’t have to: songs of protest which dwell and reflect on the conflict can be as, if not even more, powerful- Such as work by Palestinian hip hop group DAM, or Israeli indie band theangelcy.

My point is, there’s plenty to go around. Whether it be hopeful, angry, or totally unrelated to the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Middle Eastern music scene has plenty to offer.

Listen to the playlist here.

[For more information on the hip hop scene in particular, watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8bWDcW6kYw]