Gorillaz released “Damascus” last week at what felt like an uncannily perfect moment. The new single, featuring Syrian singer Omar Souleyman and American rapper Yasiin Bey, arrived on December 13 as a prelude to the band’s upcoming album The Mountains, set to drop on February 27. Its timing feels deliberate, as the release closely follows Syrian Liberation Day on December 8, marking the fall of the Assad regime and Baathist rule one year ago.
Written by Damon Albarn, Omar Souleyman, and Yasiin Bey, the lyrics unfold across two emotional registers. In English, they depict a man navigating the ocean in darkness without a map, driven forward by fate and survival. This section carries an intentional vagueness that leaves it open to interpretation, whether as a nod to a possible new wave of asylum seekers fleeing renewed turmoil, or as a metaphor for a country navigating an uncertain future. In Arabic, the lyrics shift toward longing and devotion to a lover, a familiar theme in Syrian folk music.
The production mirrors this duality. Helmed by Gorillaz alongside James Ford, Samuel Egglenton, and Remi Kabaka Jr., the track opens with a psychedelic, almost thriller-like atmosphere that evokes drifting through dangerous waters. That tension is disrupted by Yasiin Bey’s entrance, accompanied by restrained Eastern keyboards that introduce melodic phrases familiar to listeners of Levantine shaabi, or folk pop. Omar Souleyman’s verse then transforms the song into a pulsating dabke celebration, with the rhythm swinging through the four-minute runtime, pulling everyone into its orbit and turning “Damascus” into a communal moment.
The hybrid sound can land with a certain unease on first listen, when Eastern and Western influences feel glued together rather than organically mixed, with all three artists seemingly diluting their native sounds to meet at a middle ground shrouded in a mist of orientalism. Yet with repeated listens, the track grows on its audience and makes a more compelling case for its melting-pot aesthetics.
Gorillaz’s relationship with Syria does not begin here. In June 2010, the band’s associated project, Gorillaz Sound System, pulled out of Tel Aviv’s Pic.Nic festival in the immediate aftermath of the Gaza flotilla raid. Nearly a month later, Gorillaz announced a one-off show at the 11th-century fortified Citadel in the old city of Damascus, becoming the first major British band to perform in Syria. In parallel, Damon Albarn has repeatedly collaborated with the Syrian National Orchestra, and later The Orchestra of Syrian Musicians, featuring them on several releases as well as in live performances.
On his side, Omar Souleyman has become an ambassador of the Syrian shaabi scene since the late 2000s, when he was introduced to global audiences by Iraqi-American musician and researcher Mark Gergis. That breakthrough led to several high-profile collaborations with artists like Björk and Four Tet, alongside performances at major international music festivals.
The song arrives amid a growing Arab presence in international music, marked by increasingly frequent cross-border collaborations between major Arab artists and their global peers. Yet these exchanges often lean toward globalized genres, particularly rap, R&B, and electro-pop. Gorillaz’s decision to venture into the rough terrain of Levantine shaabi feels bolder, pushing beyond easy hybrids to engage with a native sound that is unmistakably Arab, Levantine, and, above all, Syrian.
Trump’s Iran War Has Clear Winners and Losers
After weeks of intensive strikes, Iran is emerging from the war with potentially more sovereignty, fewer sanctions, and a weaker opposition.