1,000+ Attend Concert In Solidarity With Mashrou' Leila

BEIRUT (Top40 Charts) Some 1,000 people turned out to show solidarity with Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila at a concert in Beirut's Hamra area Friday - the same day when the band had been scheduled to perform at the Byblos International Festival.

Independent activists came together to put on the show under the banner "The Sound of Music Is Louder." Dozens of musicians, bands and comedians took to the stage at Hamra's Aresco Palace in solidarity with the indie-rock band.



Meanwhile, pubs and restaurants across the city played the band's music.

The concert was nixed last week after Christian groups made threats against the festival and the band. The controversy purportedly originated in reaction to an article that the group's frontman, Hamed Sinno, who is openly gay and an LGBTQ activist, shared on Facebook in 2015. It contained an image of the Virgin Mary with the pop diva Madonna's face superimposed on it.

Some people also accused the band of devil worship, and of singing lyrics offensive to both Christianity and Islam.

Some members of the band were called into questioning by State Security and pressured into removing at least two of their songs from social media.

One of those songs, "Djin," was played during the concert Friday.