„Beirut is back on the map“. For some years now, this former Financial Times headline is proudly emblazoned on a poster, which you happen to pass by when taking a stroll by the sea in Beirut. Construction work is going on always and everywhere, while more and more tourists from all over the world come and rediscover the spry Lebanese capital. At any time of the day or night, the former „Paris of the Middle East“ ist vibrating and alive. The city is booming with new bars and restaurants, the society presents itself as liberal and cosmopolitan. And its art scene,too, is trying hard to win back international attention. Great artists like the famous singer Fairuz, a legend already during her lifetime, or the writer Khali Gibran, who passed away in 1931, once shaped the cultural prestige of Lebanon all over the world.

Now, a new generation is waiting in the wings, against all odds. Label-, sales- and marketing- structures, routine business taken for granted by Europeans and Americans, are still in their infancy. There are many small music bars, but larger concert halls for several hundred visitors are scarce. Hence, improvisation is the magic word. In 2010, for example, the trendy open-air bar „Coop d´Etat“ opened on the rooftop of a vacant high-rise in Beirut´s nightlife-district and artistic bohemian quarter Gemayze, with concerts and other artistic performances every evening. As the current Lebanese radio landscape is mostly in private hands, whoever wants his music to be broadcasted is asked to pay up. A rather sad situation for young artists and bands, you would think. But over the past years a remarkable alternative scene has developed, that has no need to hide itself, neither musically nor technically. A scene reflecting what Beirut has always been: a multilayered cosmos where East meets West, where Occident becomes Orient. Arabian melodies and voice lines blend easliy with rock, jazz and electric beats. Singer-songwriters play the guitar and the piano just as expertly as their traditional instruments like oud or violin. The compilation RADIO BEIRUT proudly presents some of the best-known names from a new generation of musicians, that is now ready for the world-market – Beirut is back!

Dagmar Golle