as1one is a new boy band currently in Los Angeles, California, recording its debut album. Like many other artists, they had hoped their album would climb up the charts and inspire people across the world but, even before they began recording, the fact that this group was made up of six men from Israel and Palestine had got the world talking.
The whole thing began in 2021, when Israeli and Palestinian casing directors travelled the length and breadth of Israel looking for Israeli and Palestinian men to form a Middle Eastern version of BTS. Following thousands of auditions, six men were chosen: Palestinian Bedouin Muslim Sadik Dogosh, Palestinian Christian Aseel Farah, and Jewish Israeli Nadav Philips, Niv Lin, Neta Rozenblat, and Ohad Attia.
In itself, the formation of this group was already trailblazing, but little could they have known that one day after they touched down in LA, Hamas would launch a terrorist attack on Israel, that would be met with all-out war on Palestine. But the group is intent on going ahead with its debut album, stating that it won’t be political but it will be ‘humanitarian’.
What’s certain is that even the fact that the boy band exists, that these six men are working together on music, is an act of rebellion that sends a message to their home countries and the world: we are stronger when we’re as one.