Marcel Khalife was born north of Beirut in 1950 into a family of Maronite Christians. He lived among the fishermen, peasants and gypsies in a community that was as much Muslim as it was Christian. Today he calls himself an Arab, ‘a Palestinian in Palestine’, and was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace for his work on musical heritage. Avoiding all fundamentalist temptation, his songs are close to the poetry of Palestinian Mahmoud Darwich and relate to the permanent quest for freedom and an interrogation of his roots.