“A dream, and God is a dream.” With these words, the Lebanese artist Fadel Shaker expressed his feelings upon his return to the stage in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Thursday evening, after an absence of about 14 years from performing public concerts, which included years of hiding inside a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, and judicial rulings against the backdrop of his relationship with the Sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir group and the events of Abra in 2013.
Shaker, 57 years old, performed a concert entitled “The Return of the Absent” at the Abu Bakr Salem Theater, as part of the Riyadh Season activities, after the Lebanese judiciary released him last July and lifted the travel ban on him, while his trial in a number of security cases continues.
Shaker opened the concert with the song "Ahla Rasma", amid interaction from the audience, and said that he had been dreaming of this moment throughout the years of his absence, which he described as difficult, talking about his feeling of tension when he stood again in front of the audience.
His son, the artist Mohamed Shaker, participated in the ceremony, where they performed a number of songs together, while the evening witnessed the rise of the artist Nawal Al-Kuwaiti to the stage to welcome his return, according to what was documented by the official account of the Riyadh Season.
The demand for tickets for the first concert, which sold out within minutes of being released, prompted the announcement of a second concert on Friday evening, October 23.
Fadel Shaker, whose real name is Fadel Abdel Rahman Shamdar, was born in 1969 in the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon. He began his singing career at an early age, before launching professionally in the late 1990s. He released his first album, “By God, Zaman” in 1998, and then achieved widespread popularity in the Arab world with songs including “Ya Ghayeb,” “Maqul,” and “If on My Heart,” becoming one of the most prominent romantic song singers at the beginning of the new millennium.
But his career witnessed a shift in 2012, when he announced his retirement from singing after getting close to Sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir, a Lebanese Sunni cleric who rose to prominence in the city of Sidon with his anti-Hezbollah and former Syrian regime rhetoric. This came in conjunction with the escalation of political and sectarian divisions in Lebanon and the war in Syria, as Shaker was a supporter of the Syrian opposition, while Hezbollah participated in the fighting alongside the forces of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In June 2013, armed confrontations broke out between the Lebanese army and supporters of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir in the Abra area near Sidon, resulting in the killing of at least 18 Lebanese soldiers, in addition to dead militants. Following the confrontations, Shaker hid inside the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, and remained there for more than 12 years, at a time when charges were brought against him related to supporting and financing the Assir group.
During his years in hiding, several judgments were issued against him in absentia, including two judgments issued by the Lebanese military judiciary in 2020, one of which sentenced him to 15 years in prison with hard labor after he was convicted of interfering in terrorist acts by providing logistical services, while the second sentenced him to seven years in prison on charges of financing the Assir group and securing money to purchase weapons and ammunition.
But Shaker continued to deny his participation in the fighting against the Lebanese army, and the Associated Press quoted him, during his testimony before the military court in January 2026, as saying that he had distanced himself from Sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir before the outbreak of confrontations, and that disagreements had arisen between them. He also said that he took refuge in Ain al-Hilweh camp because of threats he received from Hezbollah and supporters of the former Syrian regime.
On October 4, 2025, Fadel Shaker surrendered himself to Lebanese Army Intelligence, ending more than 12 years of hiding. The Lebanese Army Command announced, in an official statement, that Shaker surrendered himself to a patrol from the Intelligence Directorate at the entrance to Ain al-Hilweh camp, as a result of a series of communications between the army and the relevant authorities, and that the investigation against him began under the supervision of the competent judiciary.
On May 6, 2026, the Beirut Criminal Court issued a ruling acquitting Shaker, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Asir, and others of the charge of attempting to kill Hilal Hammoud. Agence France-Presse quoted a judicial source as saying that the ruling was issued due to insufficient evidence, but it related to a specific case and did not include all the judicial files pending against Shaker.
On July 8, the Lebanese Military Court agreed to release him on financial bail in four cases, about nine months after his arrest. On July 15, the military judiciary lifted the travel ban on Shaker and returned his passport, allowing him to leave Lebanon.
One day before his concert in Riyadh, the Lebanese Military Court postponed his trial session, which was scheduled for October 21, to November 25, to complete the procedures and hear additional witnesses, at the request of his defense, according to what was reported from his lawyer, Amata Mubarak.
