JNF UK to livestream concert of former hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen at London event

During his most hopeless moments, Sagui Dekel-Chen, who spent 498 days in captivity in Gaza until his release last February, would turn to music and compose songs in his head.

“ I was kidnapped, and they took everything from me. I woke up in a hospital with a dressed, unresponsive hand, a leg in a cast, handcuffed to a bed – they even took my earring. What they didn't take, simply because they didn't know about it, was the true strength inside. The strength that helped me hold onto hope, health, and sanity.”

This strength is also what then allowed Sagui to create music while held in the most deplorable conditions. “Music was there for me during the hardest moments – songs by others playing in my head.

" After several months in captivity, I found myself starting to create songs. I couldn't write them down, so I memorised the words in my head. I couldn't play or sing them, so I only imagined the melodies.”

Sagui Dekel-Chen being released, surrounded by Hamas terrorists (Photo: Getty)AFP via Getty Images

Within days of his release, Sagui recorded all nine songs he had remembered onto his phone. “At night in the hospital, I went into a side room and, with a voice like a toad running out of oxygen, quietly and somewhat embarrassed, I recorded nine songs, words and melodies”.

Having worked with renowned producers Liad Grushka and Idan Shneor, Sagui, is now preparing for his first ever concert on August 10, which will be exclusively livestreamed by JNF UK from Israel. The singer says this event is “not a celebration, not a party, not a closure, not a victory… it is simply part of the story”.

Just two weeks after being released as part of a hostage deal, Sagui released a video on YouTube, where he is seen singing Keren Shemesh (Ray of Sunshine), a song by Israeli singer-songwriter Benya Barbi, while holding his one-year-old baby, Shachar Mazal, who was born while he was in Gaza.

The comments under the video are heartwarming, with people posting, “Welcome home”, “so incredibly beautiful” and “There is so much goodness in this man. You can see it in his eyes.”

Sagui with two of his daughters after he was freed as part of a deal (Photo: courtesy)[Missing Credit]

Sagui, a proud dad of three, said: “I am not a singer, but a father who sings.” He said that even in captivity, “I sang to myself all day. Every night, I would sing to my daughters.”

He comes from a family with a love for the arts and charity. In 2014, his brother Etai, their American-born father, Yonatan, and Sagui, with support from JNF UK, set up Bikurim, a performing arts school in the south of Israel.

Its co-founder and principal was Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, a fellow resident of Nir Oz, who was murdered on October 7, along with her husband, Yonatan Siman Tov, their five-year-old twin daughters, Shahar and Arbel, and two-year-old son, Omer, and mother-in-law, Carol.

In her memory and to raise awareness of the plight of the hostages, former students and colleagues set up a musical initiative called the Tamari Project, now renamed Milestones. Since being freed, Sagui has sung with the group.

Sagui singing with the Milestones initiative (Photo: YouTube/Times of Israel)[Missing Credit]

His concert performance will take place on Kibbutz Nir Oz, which Sagui defended on the day Hamas attacked. For the very first time, he will take the stage and sing the songs he wrote and composed in the depths of captivity, as well as songs by other artists. Between the music, he will tell stories “of life, death, or what lies in between”.

The kibbutz, with a population of 427 before the attack, was one of the worst affected by the Simchat Torah Massacre on October 7, when around a quarter of its residents were either murdered or abducted.

The decision to perform the concert on the kibbutz – “at home” – was an intentional one. The evening will begin with the audience walking through the paths that have remained almost unchanged since the horrors of October 7, before arriving at the concert itself on the kibbutz lawn.

“This is the same lawn I ran across throughout my entire childhood, the lawn where I first met my wife Mili, the lawn where I raised two daughters, the lawn where I fought, and the lawn where my friends fell,” said Sagui, who was shot in the shoulder on October 7 before being abducted.

“The kibbutz is deeply important to me, and I pray it will be rebuilt with new life. I hope this event will be a cornerstone in its rebuilding.”

The concert will be a culmination of the things Sagui has experienced throughout his time in captivity and since being freed. “I am holding the microphone, the shovel, the notebook, and the story,” he said.

Sagui Dekel-Chen reunites with a JNF UK colleague after his release (Photo: Dana Bar Siman Tov)[Missing Credit]

Sagui refused to do the concert until all the other hostages had also been released, saying he “couldn’t allow” himself to perform during a time when his fellow hostages were still being held by Hamas. Some of them will be at the concert on August 10, alongside bereaved families.

For those who are unable to be there in person, JNF UK will be livestreaming the performance at a communal screening in real time exclusively to supporters in the UK. For non-Hebrew speakers, there will be English subtitles.

Sagui Dekel-Chen at a JNF UK urban forest project (Photo: JNF UK)[Missing Credit]

Sagui, who has been an employee of JNF UK for around ten years, says that he isn’t just singing for those from the kibbutz or for those who live elsewhere in Israel, but for Jews all over the world. “This is your story too. You are all invited.”

To book tickets to attend the JNF UK livestream of Songs of Survival and Hope on August 10, click here. The JC is the exclusive media partner

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JNF UK to livestream concert of former hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen at London event

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