British singer Seal just took to Facebook to highlight a young and up-and-coming Beirut musician while in Lebanon for a performance at the Beiteddine Festival on Thursday.
Peter Chouchani is a singer and guitar player who can regularly be seen performing at various bars, venues and street festivals throughout Beirut. He often performs covers of western songs, doing his own take with his soulful vocals.
However, as Seal pointed out, Chouchani is also a writer and performs some of his owns songs as well. Seal also compared Chouchani's style to American singer John Mayer.
Seal has been using Facebook Live to stream local musicians that he finds as he tours different cities, promoting them to his fans and interviewing them about their music. In the case of Chouchani, Seal followed the tip of a local promoter.
Seal filmed Chouchani performing at Beirut Souks in Downtown Beirut, capturing his performance and interviewing him about his music. The two then did an impromptu performance of "Englishman in New York" by Sting. Due to Lebanon's less than stellar wifi and 3G, the video was uploaded later instead of live streaming like Seal normally prefers.
Talking about Chouchani and other musicians in a Facebook Live message to his fans after the meeting, Seal explained that sometimes its like "finding a diamond in the rough." He said that it was the same for him when he was discovered, pointing out that he became the award-winning singer he is today because of the people that promoted, coached and guided him from the beginning of his career.
Hopefully Seal's promotion will be an important force driving Chouchani to future success in a similar way.