Record 7 Songs, When Will Israel-Palestinian Boy Group As1one Release First Single?

As1one (Instagram @as1one_official)

JAKARTA - Israel-Palestinian's first boy group, as1one, landed in Los Angeles on October 6 to begin recording their first album.

Now, when his identity is tested, his members are determined to realize a humanity mission' in the midst of the conflict between the two countries that never ends.

The group consists of Sadik Dogosh, a 20-year-old Palestinian Bedouin Muslim from Rahat, Israel, with a sharp gaze and acting background.

Then there's Neta Rozenblat, a 22-year-old Israeli Jew but looks younger, raised in Tel Aviv, where he learned computer science before starting singing, which then resulted in an appearance in Israel's version of The X Factor in 2021.

Coming from Haifa, a Christian, Aseel Farah, 22, from Palestine, is the group rapper and proclaimed himself as an introvert.

Then Nadav Philips, 23-year-old Israeli Jew grew up near Tel Aviv, idolizing Mariah Carey and used to appear as a wedding singer.

Then, Niv Lin, 22, an Israeli Jew from the desert city in southern Israel and played professional basketball before turning to singing. (He also appeared in The X Factor.)

And lastly, Ohad Attia, also 22 years old and an Israeli Jew, grew up in Tel Aviv by singing and playing guitar, a skill she has shown beautifully in this group.

Quoted from Billboard, Monday, the team behind as1one, led by music executives Ken Levitan and James Diener, envisioned the Middle Eastern version of BTS, and in an effort to create it, the casting directors of Israel and Palestine have held auditions in major cities and small villages across Israel by 2021.

On the surface, these six young men check all the criteria for boy groups in the generality: they reach the necessary balance between dreams and adorable and sing ballads and bangers in harmony that touches the heart about women, love, and 'dari as the whole world has seen', as proclaimed by one of their songs.

However, although each side knows, when they auditioned with a thousand other youths at Sherman Oaks Chipotle to join the group as an attempt to push national boundaries, they could not predict that their message of unity would be tested intensely even before they released any music.

As1one is not meant to serve as a six-person answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Seeing how K-pop and Latin music has become a global force over the past few years, Levitan and Diener want to form a group from outside the Western world that they can build into superstar artists.

They have experience with this caliber artist: Levitan helps develop Kings of Leon, manages Bon Jovi and, as co-founder and president of Nashville-based Vector Management, has worked with Kesha, The B-52s, The Fray, and more.

Meanwhile, Diener launched A&M Octone Records, where he developed artists including Maroon 5, and after the label sold 50 percent of its shares to Interscope Geffen A&M, he co-founded the music publishing company Freesolo Entertainment.

The group has recorded seven songs in four weeks since its arrival at LA, with collaborators including Andrews, Kirk, Danja (Say It Right owned by Nelly Furtado, SexyBack owned by Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears' Gameme More), Justin Tranter (author's colleague for Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Maroon 5 and Imagine Dragons) and Y2K (Doja Cat's Attention).

It's not clear when the first single as1one will be released, and the group hasn't announced the signing of the label yet. Levitan and Diener said they couldn't reveal details about label negotiations other than "there's a real interest in the band."