BEIRUT, 15 August 2006 — Lebanese television channels have stopped broadcasting musical shows since the beginning of the present war in the country. Channels such as New TV, LBC and Al-Manar, have instead been focusing more on war news, analysis and political developments but they have also been playing patriotic songs, the Al-Watan daily reported yesterday.
As the current generation of Lebanese singers have hardly devoted their skills on patriotic songs particularly after the civil war and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the south in 2000, the TV stations have no choice but to look to old repertoire of patriotic songs.
Popular songs of the past generation by Fairouz and Abdul Halim Hafiz are being played along with the works of Majedah Al-Rumi, Julia Butrus and Marcel Khalifa, most of which are from the old civil war days.
Ryan Hamadan, 27, a spokesperson for New TV, explained the channel’s policy of airing patriotic songs. “Patriotic songs unite the Lebanese people by helping them overcome their sectarian and political divisions, which Israel has been exploiting.”
