DUBAI: Palestinian Chilean singer Elyanna this week released her new single “Ghazali,” a track that compares women to gazelles, symbolizing beauty, grace and freedom.

The upbeat track, which dropped this week alongside a music video, is built around fast, lively percussion and carries a celebratory mood.

It follows a period on the road with Coldplay, after the singer joined the British band on their world tour and collaborated with them on the song “We Pray.”

The release caps a busy year for Elyanna. In May, she featured alongside Canadian singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez on “Illuminate,” one of the official songs for the FIFA World Cup 2026 soundtrack. The track, produced by Grammy-winning producer Cirkut, mixes alternative R&B, Arabic melodies, global pop and Latin influences.

“Rooting for all the MENA region. Making us proud!” she wrote on social media at the time.

In 2023, Elyanna became the first artist to perform a full set in Arabic at the Coachella music festival in California. She was also the first artist to sing in Arabic on US talk show “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Her new release follows backlash she faced over the music video for her previous single, “Bosa,” which released on Sept. 4 and features a prison-like stone compound with courtyards and barred windows.

Speaking to Complex MENA, the singer said: “With ‘Bosa,’ I invite women to be loud about their femininity, desire, confidence and freedom.”

Some viewers criticized the setting online, with Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani writing on X that “prison is not an abstract symbol for Palestinians. The prison is an actual institution of colonial violence.”

Another X user described the video as “beyond tone deaf,” while others accused the singer of orientalism.

Elyanna later addressed the criticism on an Instagram story, saying the set was a “performance” in which “doors lead to freedom” and that the video was “a bold artistic statement.”

She said she had “pushed the limits, maybe a little too far,” and ended her post with: “Free our souls. Free our bodies. Free our minds. Free Palestine.”