interview | saint levant

full look.Unboxing Valentino Spring/Summer 2023
shoes. Valentino Garavani Rockstud Essential

Saint Levant’s rise to fame has been nothing short of a social media phenomenon. The trilingual rapper has amassed over 55 million streams on his flirtatious hit track Very Few Friends, reaching unparalleled heights for a 22-year-old. Raised in Gaza and Amman, Saint Levant, real name Marwan Abdelhamid, effortlessly blends French, Arabic and English making him a unique voice in the world of rap. Dressed in Valentino, the rising artist chats to Schön! about mastering virality and his surprising journey into music.

full look. Unboxing Valentino Spring/Summer 2023
shoes. Valentino Garavani Rockstud Essential
opposite
jacket.Unboxing Valentino Spring/Summer 2023
Valentino Toile Iconographe anorak

“There was a lot of soft rock playing when I was growing up in Gaza,” says Saint Levant on how music has always been present in his life. “It definitely comes from my dad and my maternal grandmother, my French grandmother. She was a pianist, and the piano was one of the first instruments I learned along with saxophone growing up.”

Despite being a constant in his life, music was never originally the plan for him. “I went to school for International Relations but I always wanted to be a TV show host for the longest time. Think John Stewart vibes,” he confesses. His passion for communications and political commentary is precisely what brought him to TikTok, the platform that made his music viral. “I made a TikTok account and would use it as though it was my own TV show at the beginning. I would make political content before all the music. But when I sat down and asked what I wanted to do with my life: music was the most obvious answer.”

full look. Unboxing Valentino Spring/Summer 2023
shoes. Valentino Garavani Rockstud Essential
opposite
full look. Unboxing Valentino Spring/Summer 2023

What many overlook about Saint Levant is his entrepreneurial spirit. When he made his pivot to the music industry, the rapper was running a startup that contributed to the economic development of Palestine. His ambitious go-getter attitude, passion for music and curiosity for fame inspired him to “study algorithms and the marketing to launch a career for myself with no budget.” His understanding of algorithms seems to have paid off. The Franco-Arabic rapper now boasts over 1.9 million listeners and his latest EP, From Gaza, with Love, is an invitation to globalise the rich sounds that make up Middle Eastern culture. “Building infrastructure and supporting artists coming out of [the Arab world] is really important for me,” he says.

jacket. Unboxing Valentino Spring/Summer 2023
Valentino Toile Iconographe anorak
trousers. Stylist’s own
opposite
full look.Unboxing Valentino Spring/Summer 2023
shoes. Valentino Garavani Rockstud Essential

Saint Levant is also emerging in the world of fashion, announced as Dior Beauty’s first fragrance ambassador for the Middle East and sitting front row at Loewe‘s men’s Paris fashion week show. The talented artist’s buzz is proving to have longevity. Fans looking to hear the music they’ve grown to love online in real life can catch the artist on his From Gaza, With Love tour across Europe in May and the US from autumn.