We’re Kicking Off NEST Palestine Music Incubator in its Second Cycle
Written by Salma Mousa
Designed to empower and provide Palestinian music creators with the tools, mentorship, and opportunities they need to thrive, we are delighted to continue our music incubator journey and kick off our second cycle of NEST Palestine.
Selected from over 100 applications received this year, 41 participants, including bands and solo acts spanning all music genres, will be proceeding to the first phase of the incubator, Global Beats, the capacity-building phase with hybrid masterclasses on all things music business, led by international and local experts like Liliana Abudalo & Dina Hakim from Believe Arabia, Jonathan Gourmel from IN FINE, Nina Kehagia from shesaid.so. and Emily Gonneau from Nüagency.
NEST II participants, from jazz singer Karma to qanun enthusiast Shafeeq Alsadi and cellist Faris Amin to techno producer Zaataric and aspiring Soundcloud rapper $keem, will embark on an intensive journey filled with masterclasses and workshops, networking sessions, collaborative projects, and one-on-one mentorships meant to elevate their craft and allow the understanding of the modern music landscape in all of its complexities.
This year, selected music creators are expected to engage throughout the four main themes of NEST II: Artistic Identity, Digital Marketing & Public Relations, Live Performance & Touring, and The Value of Copyrights, spanning across masterclasses on monetization and copyrights, building a touring strategy and analytics of audience and fanbase.
Singer and songwriter Dinamiin, who participated in the first cycle of the program in 2023 and will be returning to join us again, was able to release ‘Tamcelyeh’ by Jafra Productions during her time in the incubator and described the program as “the first of its kind, especially in the Palestinian context”.
Faris Ishaq, an instrumentalist who received long-term incubation from the first cycle of NEST Palestine, was able to launch a successful solo tour in the fall of 2024 in France, Norway and the United Kingdom including Manchester, Bristol, and southern England and was invited to perform at London Jazz Festival.
In a nutshell, NEST music incubator aims to create a pipeline of innovative talent that can support the future of music in the MENA region, while addressing challenges like representation, diversity, and equitable access to resources; this would be impossible without the generous support and contributions of our partners.
We are proud that Jafra Productions has signed a partnership agreement with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Expertise France, as business development partners. This collaboration aims to support the Palestinian music industry by focusing on developing the legal and copyright set up infrastructure and as a consequence strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The goal is to enable the community, music creators and professionals, to sustain their careers as sustainable as possible. This cooperation with France aims to also encourage business partnerships, contributing to a more vibrant music sector in Palestine. With eyes and ears on the technological changes and new fan behaviours happening in the music space worldwide, NEST’s ultimate ambition is also in line to preserve MENA’s identities and artistic richness.
With that mentioned, this year Jafra has expanded its partnerships, reaching more international enterprises with a total of 30 partners, including Babel XP, Believe, SACEM, UNI, BRIDGE AUDIO, Groover, FLAM, Nouveau Productions, MdlBeast, Amman Jazz Festival, Visa For Music, King's College London, shesaid.so, Music Ally, Anghami, Scene Noise, Hivewire, Tiktok, InFine, SAWA SAWA, and AFAC (Arab Fund for Arts and Culture), who’ve also renewed their trust in NEST’s potential, and whose contributions and DROSOS Foundation, enabled a successful first cycle to happen between 2022 and 2023.
In Palestine, we partner with the likes of Al Kamandjati, Wonder Cabinet, Palestine Music Space (PMS), 2048 Foundation, and Momentum Labs.
We are excited to be engaged with the next wave of rising Palestinian music creators and we look forward to this cycle of NEST with all of its possibilities. Stay tuned as this incredible cohort of music creators embarks on quite a journey…
