The urban music performer René Pérez Joglar, known as Residente, announced on the social network Instagram that he decided to postpone the publication of his new album, due to the “macabre genocide”, in reference to the war conflict in the Gaza Strip. “Well, I tell everyone who is interested in my music that since October I decided to postpone the release of my album along with several videos that were supposed to be released this year, because it is impossible for me to do so in the face of all the macabre genocide that destroys slowly to Palestine,” said the former member of the Calle 13 band in a video published on that social network.
The singer-songwriter and activist, who has won 36 Grammy Awards, questioned “when was the day when we dehumanized ourselves to such a level that we can see the heads of boys and girls exploding in front of us and we don’t say anything? Why doesn’t everything stop, like in the pandemic? We stop everything and focus on what is happening in Gaza. Instead of uploading a “story” modeling clothes or showing the plate of food you are eating or the night of parties where you got drunk, you stop for a moment, look for information about Palestine and denounce the genocide that Israel is committing with the support of the United States against the civilian population of Palestine, because they are civilians who are being killed. I do not do this from the side of reproach, but from the side of peace.”
The singer of “’Atrévete” and other hits also said he felt disappointed as an artist because at the recent Grammy Awards, “no one said anything about this genocide, nothing. And I understand that there are people who don’t say anything because they don’t understand the conflict, but let’s see, tell me, what do we need to understand? What is so complicated? You don’t have to be a historian to put yourself in the shoes of every person massacred in Palestine. It is simple. This is about having empathy, about putting yourself in the place of others, about thinking about others, about thinking that that child who just killed could be your son or your brother or that that woman under the rubble could be your mother.”
During his video, ‘Resident’ dropped his wits on his fellow urban artists, whom he asked to denounce the genocide in Gaza. “Just like when they published the lists of the best rappers who all went out to cry for a month, in the same way you can go out and cry for Gaza, for at least two weeks and post something that has nothing to do with you or your careers, that has to do with the children that are being killed in Palestine,” he said.
Pérez Joglar urged the public to follow the work of Palestinian journalists and photographers “who have sacrificed their lives, to show us through their networks everything that the mass media hides. We need everyone to come together and call for a ceasefire immediately, because every child murdered in Gaza today would be alive if they had stopped bombing yesterday. Freedom for Palestine. And I will see you next year,” Residente concluded.