Ibrahim Qashoush


Ibrahim Qashoush was a Syrian man who has been credited as the author of the protest anthem "Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar".
The song "Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar" was a viral video popular in mid-2011 during the protests in the city of Hama, in the early phase of the Syrian Civil War.

History

During the 2011 Syrian uprising, Qashoush was acclaimed for singing and authoring songs mocking president of Syria Bashar al-Assad and the ruling Ba'ath Party. The protest anthem "Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar", or "Come on, Bashar, leave", was attributed to him.
On 3 July 2011, a man reported to be Qashoush was found dead in the Orontes River, his throat cut and his vocal cords ripped out. After the murder, fellow protesters hailed Qashoush as the "nightingale of the revolution".

Authorship of "Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar"

In December 2016, James Harkin reported in GQ Magazine that the creator of "Yalla Erhal Ya Bashar" was not Qashoush but one Abdul Rahman Farhood, who had since fled Syria for Europe. According to Harkin's sources, Qashoush had been a security guard killed by rebels as a supposed regime informer, and the rebels had pressured his family to keep quiet about it after Qashoush had been identified as the song's creator.