Omar Souleyman

Omar Souleyman
Omar Souleyman performing at Perth International Arts Festival in 2011
Background information
Born	1966
Origin	Tell Tamer, Syria
Genres	Dabke
Occupation(s)	Singer, musician, farmer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Sublime Frequencies, Ribbon Music, Monkeytown

External media

Audio
"You Must Hear This: Bjork Picks Omar Souleyman, All Things Considered on National Public Radio, 2009-06-29
Video
Omar Souleyman - Haram in Brooklyn - June 2010

Omar Souleyman is a musician from the village of Tell Tamer near the city of Ra's al-'Ayn in the northeastern region of Syria. He started his career as a part-time wedding singer in his native al-Hasakah Governorate, and while himself a Sunni Arab, he emphasises the influence its culturally diverse milieu has had on his style: "My music is from the community I come from – the Kurdish, the Ashuris, the Arabic, they're all in this community. Even Turkish because it's so near, it's just across the border. And even Iraqi."

Born in 1966, he began his career in 1994, working with a number of musicians with whom he still performs, and around five hundred studio and live albums have been released under his name. (Eighty percent of those releases are recordings made at weddings and presented to the married couple, which are later copied and sold at local kiosks.)

In October 2013 a newly recorded album Wenu Wenu was released by UK label Ribbon Music.

He appeared at the Glastonbury Festival in 2011, and performed during Chaos in Tejas in Austin, Texas in June 2011. In August 2011, Omar Souleyman appeared at Paredes de Coura in Portugal. Souleyman was chosen by Caribou to perform at the ATP Nightmare Before Christmas festival that they co-curated in December 2011 in Minehead, England.

In 2011 he recorded three remixes for Björk's Biophilia, all found on the second disc of her "Crystalline Series".

In August 2013 he had a performance at the Way Out West festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. For a while he had been denied permission to visit Sweden. The authorities had feared that he would eventually request asylum. Two days before the date of stage the visa was granted. In December 2013, he performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway.