Omar Souleyman: the Syrian wedding singer who is now his country’s greatest export

Omar Souleyman was a prolific wedding singer with more than 500 live albums to his name before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. As his country became increasingly unstable, Souleyman fled to Turkey, where he could no longer perform for couples tying the knot because of the language barrier. Yet he continued to write songs of love and positivity as a welcome distraction from the horrors of war, and in the process found himself something of a star in the West.

 “When I started out as a wedding singer, I never thought I’d be able to sing outside Syria – especially for an audience that can’t understand the lyrics,” he says.

But that changed in 2007, when the US label Sublime Frequencies released Souleyman’s earlier recordings, and he developed a cult indie following, thanks in part to the riotously upbeat live show he has taken across Europe, Canada and Australia (whenever he can secure the visas).

 It is a success for which he is grateful, but he is also slightly perplexed – understandably, as Souleyman doesn’t fit into any traditional Western pigeonholes. His thumping Arabic songs aren’t the kind of world music that normally gets played in the background at barbecues, and neither have they made their way onto the average 2am rave playlist.