Episode Overview

Podcast: All Of It with Alison Stewart (WNYC)
Episode: Rasha Nahas Previews Habibi Festival Live in Studio
Date: October 10, 2025
Guest: Rasha Nahas, Palestinian singer, songwriter, and guitarist

This episode spotlights Rasha Nahas as she performs live, discusses her music, and previews her participation in the fifth annual Habibi Festival—a concert series highlighting musicians from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA). The conversation explores the personal and political threads in Nahas' songwriting, her cross-cultural influences, and the significance of artistic spaces for Arab artists in the West.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introducing Rasha Nahas & The Habibi Festival

• [00:09] Alison Stewart sets the stage, introducing Habibi Festival as “the week-long concert series featuring musicians from the SWANA region: Southwest Asia and Northern Africa.”
• Nahas, a Palestinian artist now based in Berlin and New York, is a featured performer at the festival, recognized for her latest solo work and for a cameo in We Are Lady Parts.

On “Ranili”: Music as Survival & Testimony

• Live Performance: Nahas performs her recent single, “Ranili” (“Sing for Me”).
• [05:22] On the origins of the song, Nahas explains:

  “I started writing [Ranili] shortly after the genocide started and it was a time where I really kind of lost my voice, lost words for what was happening...Everything changes fast. I still didn't get used to this autumn. The winter came without knocking on the door. Flooding the land with blood and water, but the roses promised me a bloom in spring.”

• [06:10] She frames the song as “about hope, about resilience, about making music as survival, as documenting the times as an offering to my community.”

Identity, Instrumentation, and the Creative Process

• [06:51] The conversation turns to Nahas’ musical beginnings:

  “Not really piano actually, with like oriental keyboard. Very specific choices.”

• [07:04] On choosing guitar:

  “I just fell in love with it… It’s a relationship that I cannot explain.”

• [07:57] Her musical upbringing:

  “With my dad, I listened to John Lennon a lot. And with my mom, it was more Fairuz...also the Palestinian underground scene...the Arabic independent alternative music.”

• [08:56] Nahas acknowledges her “immigrant” identity, carrying “all these different worlds that I moved between. We live in a world where identity is not one thing. It’s a construct of many things… I’m just grateful to be able to channel that through my art.”

Classical Guitar & Layered Influences

• [09:45] Alison asks about the impact of classical guitar study:

  “It taught me a lot of discipline...technique is really precious. I think it gave me a lot of freedom...like a wider, richer palette. It’s like a language… Classical music is very layered. It taught me the complexity within the simplicity…”

“Once Upon a Time in Palestine” – Memory & Dedication

• [11:14] Nahas introduces an unreleased song:

  “It’s about a lime tree that my grandfather planted in our backyard… He’s not with us anymore, and I would love to dedicate this song to his soul.”

• Live performance follows, blending English and Arabic influences.

Language, Belonging, Songwriting

• [15:41] On writing in Arabic vs English:

  “I saw it as a barrier...now I see the richness and the opportunity to bridge. My Arabic songs open new territories, my English songs open others, and sometimes they intersect. Arabic is my mother tongue, but English is the language I had all my adult relationships in...It’s very intuitive.”

Berlin, New York & The Search for Space

• [16:49] On moving to Berlin:

  “Growing up in Haifa...there was a lot more than a glass ceiling. There was an occupation...your identity is not free to just be. As a young queer artist woman, I was seeking some more space to...just be for a second...Berlin somewhat offered that.” “I was very attracted to the Weimar era theater, cabaret...it reflected in my first album. Berlin is home now...love and hate. ”

• [18:32] On the balance between New York and Berlin:

  “I just love New York...there’s a lot of synergy. I put out energy and get something back...also there’s an amazing community here. For example, Habibi Festival, creating an Arabic SWANA-centered music festival in today’s political climate...so important to have this representation.”

• [19:30] On combating negative representation:

  “As Arabs, we’re fighting years and years of propaganda, misrepresentation, dehumanization...We’re just sick of proving that we’re humans...Spaces like Habibi Festival create this alternative, safer space where we just perform excellent art...valued for its quality and not this western gaze.”

Live Performance & New Music

• [20:14] Nahas reflects on her previous night’s show at Joe’s Pub:

  “It was beautiful...a full house, beautiful audience. It was honestly like the perfect welcoming into the city.”

• [20:53] Confirms she’s recording a new album in Brooklyn: “The demos are done. The team is locked in...I can’t wait, honestly.”

“Skies Don’t Care”: A Song from Jerusalem’s Rooftops

• [21:28] Nahas introduces another original:

  “‘Skies Don’t Care’...I wrote at the age of 17 on a rooftop in Jerusalem...looking at the old city and the apartheid wall. My friend pointed at the sky and said, ‘The skies don’t care.’ I wrote this text on my phone and this song happened.” “I would love to finish with it today and dedicate it to the people back home for their resilience and beauty.”

• The live performance resonantly weaves themes of conflict, resilience, and universality.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On making music in dark times:

  “It’s a song about hope, about resilience, about making music as survival, as documenting the times as an offering to my community.”
  (Rasha Nahas, [06:10])

• On identity as an artist and immigrant:

  “We live in a world where identity is not one thing. It’s a construct of many things and many places and a lot of movement.”
  (Rasha Nahas, [08:56])

• On art, representation, and safe spaces:

  “We’re just sick of proving that we’re humans to people...Spaces like the Habibi Festival create this alternative, safer space where we just perform excellent art, you know, and art is valued for its quality and not like this western gaze.”
  (Rasha Nahas, [19:30])

• On inspiration behind “Skies Don’t Care”:

  “My friend pointed at the sky and said, ‘The skies don’t care.’ I wrote this text on my phone and this song happened.”
  (Rasha Nahas, [21:35])

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:09] Introduction, Habibi Festival background
• [01:00] “Ranili” – live performance
• [05:22] Song background: music as survival
• [06:51] Musical upbringing, guitar
• [07:57] Musical influences
• [09:45] Studying classical guitar
• [11:14] “Once Upon a Time in Palestine” – dedication and live performance
• [15:41] Writing in Arabic vs. English
• [16:49] Moving to Berlin and seeking freedom
• [18:32] Balancing Berlin and New York, the need for cultural representation
• [20:14] Reflections on Joe’s Pub performance
• [20:53] Confirming new music recorded in Brooklyn
• [21:28] “Skies Don’t Care” – introduction and live performance

Conclusion

This episode of All Of It offers a vivid, thoughtful portrait of Rasha Nahas—her artistry, her multifaceted identity, and her commitment to using music as both expression and testimony. Through live performances and candid conversation, the episode celebrates cultural resilience, questions of belonging, and the importance of community and representation for Arab artists in diaspora. Listeners are left with a sense of the power of both music and shared spaces, especially within the currents of politics, migration, memory, and hope.