Moroccan Singer Abdelaziz Stati Continues Performances, Expresses Support for Palestinians

Abdelaziz Stati is determined to honor his commitments to festival organizers. He expressed his willingness to maintain his commitments with the organizers of the festivals he had already agreed to participate in, due to the difficult conditions in the Gaza Strip. He says he feels sympathy for the Palestinian people. However, in a statement to the Al3omk website, he insisted that life cannot stop, even for them, because the Palestinians surely have moments of joy and happy occasions despite the problems they are going through. "Morocco too suffers from many problems, but the public needs art to entertain and move away from sadness. Art is the only escape for a large part of society that has been deprived of ’Mawazine’ for four years," added the singer. Recently, he gave a concert at the closing of the nineteenth edition of the Mawazine Festival in Salé.

On another note, Stati, 63, says he is not about to say goodbye to the music scene. Age is not a constraint for an artist, unlike an athlete, he argued. He plans to continue performing as long as his health allows. "The authentic artist who retires at the peak of his career is a traitor," the singer said. Responding to the controversy over the ban on art, Stati clarifies: "I do my job with dedication and a lot of effort, and I don’t consider art to be haram. Some readers recite the Quran with musical maqams." He also refrained from commenting on the prison sentences recently handed down to several rappers, due to the obscene lyrics in their songs. "Rap is known to Moroccans and it has its audience," he said vaguely.