VZCZCXRO9260
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHAM #3260/01 2141234
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021234Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9725
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 003260 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR R/PPR, ECA/PE/C/CU, ECA/PE/C 
ALSO FOR NEA/PPD, NEA/ELA, AND IIP 
CAIRO FOR PA 
TUNIS FOR PA 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OEXC SCUL JO
SUBJECT:  Ozomatli's Music and Message Attract Thousands of 
Jordanians to Performances Throughout the Kingdom 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  The three-time Grammy award-winning Los Angeles-based 
Latino funk and hip-hop band "Ozomatli" performed a series of 
concerts to highly-receptive audiences during a visit to Jordan last 
week, captivating more than 3000 young Jordanians during their tour 
of the Kingdom.  Ozomatli thrilled audiences everywhere, drawing 
people out of their seats to "shake it up" on the dance floor.  In 
addition to two large concerts, Ozomatli performed for hundreds of 
students and children at a series of outreach events at youth summer 
camps, a home for abused children, and a Palestinian refugee camp. 
The program received extensive media coverage, including television, 
radio, and all of the major Arabic daily newspapers.  This 
attention-getting program supported Embassy Amman's goals of 
reaching diverse, young audiences throughout Jordan, and promoted 
MPP goals of encouraging mutual understanding and combating 
extremism.  END SUMMARY. 
 
YOUNG PEOPLE IN JORDAN AND AROUND THE REGION MOVED BY THE MUSIC AND 
THE MESSAGE 
 
¶2.  Ozomatli visited Jordan from July 23-28 as part of a Middle East 
tour sponsored in part by R and ECA.  PA Amman proposed the tour 
last fall, and eventually oversaw the regional tour in cooperation 
with Embassies Tunis, Beirut and Cairo (Lebanon eventually had to 
drop out due to political turmoil).  PA Amman's goal, shared by the 
participating posts, was to reach large audiences of youth, 
including many underprivileged youth, with a message of American 
ethnic diversity, peace and tolerance.  Through direct engagement 
and multiplied outreach through media appearances, we achieved these 
goals in each country. 
 
¶3.  Ozomatli performed at two large public venues during their stay 
in Jordan:  at the 25th Annual Jerash Festival for Culture and the 
Arts, and at a free concert in Aqaba.  The performance at Jerash 
attracted approximately 800 people, and the performance in Aqaba 
attracted over 1,000.  This turnout was much greater than expected 
for Aqaba, where cultural programming is rare, but less than 
expected for the Jerash Festival.  PA Amman's inquiries after the 
event revealed that turnout for the Festival has been low for all of 
their performers this year, with fewer than 500 showing up for two 
very popular Arab singers who performed the same week.  At both 
Ozomatli performances, members of the band reached out to make 
personal connections with the audience.  They jumped off stage and 
performed in the center of the dance floor, chatted with the crowd, 
took photos, signed autographs, and went to great lengths to show 
that we all have more in common than we are different. 
 
¶4.  In addition to their main concerts, Ozomatli performed for 
hundreds of young people at a series of outreach events at youth 
summer camps, a home for abused children, and a Palestinian refugee 
camp near Jerash.  Their concert at the Souf UNRWA camp marked the 
first time that the USG has programmed a cultural event at a 
Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan.  UNWRA and other officials there 
have invited us to continue such cooperation.  Children at the camp 
not only loved the music, but enjoyed interacting with the band 
members afterward:  they played basketball, asked for autographs, 
and performed dances for them before they departed.  At the Dar Al 
Anda children's home for victims of domestic abuse, the director 
tearfully thanked the band after having watched the children dance 
to Ozomatli's music, clap, chant, and beg for more.  She noted that 
she had never before seen the children react so enthusiastically to 
any program, and emphasized how important it was to their 
rehabilitation to have joyful experiences such as this. 
 
OZOMATLI PROMOTES DIVERSITY AND TOLERANCE 
 
¶5.  At every performance, Ozomatli broke down barriers, interacting 
personally with their audiences, and showing by example what can be 
achieved when you bring diverse groups of people together.  The 
band's incredible musical talent is influenced by their own varied 
ethnic and cultural background.  At a time when Jordanians maintain 
a largely hostile attitude toward U.S. foreign policy, through this 
program they saw the best of America - that diversity and mutual 
respect makes us stronger and feeds our ideals.  Not just with their 
music, but also with their words and actions, Ozomatli promoted 
American culture and values and suggested to the audience that peace 
and tolerance can bring people closer together.  An example of 
Ozomatli's willingness to learn about its audiences:  bassist Will 
Abers performed an improvised song he composed on-the-spot in Arabic 
at the Souf Palestinian refugee camp to delighted children. 
 
PRESS COVERAGE 
 
¶6.  All four major Arabic dailies in Jordan reported on the Ozomatli 
July 26 concert at Jerash Festival on July 28.  Reports were 
featured with color photos on the cultural news pages, and more 
specifically as part of a page dedicated to Jerash Festival 
coverage.  During the two weeks leading up to the concert, all major 
 
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newspapers ran press releases about Ozomatli's tour in the region. 
Ozomatli's press conference prior to the concert also received good 
coverage in the four Arabic dailies; Embassy PAO participated in the 
press conference alongside two members of Ozomatli.  During the 
conference, this year's U.S. participation in the festival was 
highlighted, as well as U.S. ethnic diversity and Ozomatli's message 
of hope and peace and respect for world cultures.   Under the 
headline "Ozomatli presents its performance in the South Theater," 
Arabic daily Ad-Dustour described Ozomatli's performance as 
"exceptional" and said that this was the first performance by an 
American band at the Jerash Festival in twenty years.  The report, 
which was featured along with a color photo showing a dancing 
audience in front of the band, said that once the members of the 
band started "swaying," the audience began to dance and interact 
with them.  Under the headline "Ozomatli fills the South Theater 
with boisterous joy," Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm said that 
Ozomatli has "prompted an atmosphere of boisterous joy ... with 
which the large audience interacted to the point that they moved 
into the arena of the amphitheater and filled it with dance and 
joy."  Under the headline "Hip-Hop on the South Theater while the 
North Theater celebrated popular traditions," Arabic daily Al-Rai 
said that Ozomatli rendered the arena of the South Theater into a 
dance floor where the mostly youthful audience danced to their 
music.  The report, which also featured a photo of the band and the 
dancing audience, described Ozomatli's music mixture and mentioned 
their regional tour.  Under the banner headline "The American 
Ozomatli performs its music: a crazy artistic mixture" splashed 
across the top of the page with two huge color photos, Arabic daily 
Al-Ghad carried a report about Ozomatli's performance focusing on 
the "immediate" interaction between the band and the audience, as 
Ozomatli turned the arena into a dance floor.  The report mentioned 
that this was the first American participation in Jerash Festival in 
twenty years.  The report also featured background information about 
the band.  Jordanian Television broadcast a report about the 
Ozomatli concert in Jerash on its morning show on July 27, which 
recapped the Jerash Festival events.  The four-minute report showed 
cheerful crowds dancing to the band's diverse music.  Two days 
before their concert at the Jerash Festival, two band members did a 
ten-minute interview on a local English language radio station, Play 
99.6 FM.  The interview was broadcast live during the morning drive 
show, which attracts thousands of listeners, both students and young 
professionals.  The band talked about its music, its message of 
peace and justice, and its feelings about touring the region.  The 
PAO also talked about the reason behind bringing a band such as 
Ozomatli, which represents the United States in all its diversity. 
 
IMPACT 
 
¶7.  Ozomatli's visit to Jordan demonstrated Embassy Amman's ongoing 
commitment to bringing American cultural events to 
culturally-neglected regions of the country, and especially to 
reaching younger and more diverse audiences.  Ozomatli's rapport 
with young people and humble approach to their audiences won them 
many converts and garnered tremendous good will for American 
culture.  One comment posted on a popular blog after the Jerash show 
said: "They are inarguably THE best live act I have ever seen, aside 
from being amazingly down-to-earth and knowing exactly what moves a 
crowd.. hats off for Ozo, good stuff..."  Another young boy 
commented after the performance in Aqaba that "Ozomatli sweetened 
Aqaba tonight."  More than 3000 people attended the two large 
concerts and four outreach performances.  Overall, the program 
supported MPP goals of expanding mutual understanding and combating 
radicalism through outreach. 
 
¶8.  Cost-share:  Ozomatli visited Jordan as part of a regional tour 
which also included Tunis and Egypt.  The tour was funded by a 
Department of State grant that totaled 69,021 USD, distributed among 
the three countries.  In addition to this grant, PA Amman provided 
program support of 8,000 USD, covering expenses related to promotion 
and advertising and support services such as equipment rental.  PA 
Amman obtained sponsorships of the program from local partners that 
amounted to 59,000 USD.  This included: sponsorship by two major 
radio stations (Fann FM in Arabic and Play 99.6 in English), which 
launched promotion campaigns of a value of 20,000 USD; the Jerash 
Festival contributed approximately 25,000 USD towards performance 
fees, hotel rooms in Amman, and sound equipment rental; a local 
design and printing firm fully sponsored the design and the printing 
of flyers and posters, valued at approximately 7,000 USD; the 5,000 
USD performance fee for the concert in Aqaba was sponsored by Tala 
Bay, a real estate development corporation; and 2,000 USD worth of 
hotel rooms in Aqaba was sponsored by ASEZA (the Aqaba Special 
Economic Zone Authority). 
 
¶9.  Amman strongly endorses Ozomatli.  They have outstanding musical 
talent and are also ideal cultural ambassadors who were eager to 
meet people, and talk about their music as well issues they find 
important in America.  They were generous with their time and 
 
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flexible in the face of an incredibly demanding schedule.  PA Amman 
thanks them and would also like to thank R, NEA/PPD, and ECA for 
their support of this program.  Finally, we thank Embassies Tunis, 
Cairo and Beirut for their hard work in supporting this initiative. 
We believe that it was worthwhile in terms of the number of people 
the program reached, and the positive message that Ozomatli shared 
through its music and interactions with thousands of young people. 
Photos may be found on U.S. Embassy Amman's website at: 
http://amman.usembassy.gov.  Additionally, their tour in Jordan was 
videotaped by a professional videographer whose tapes will be 
forwarded to Washington as soon as editing is complete. 
 
HALE