The Syrian Artists Syndicate opened the door for the Lebanese artist Fadel Shaker to return to public activity through Damascus, after the head of the Syrian Artists Syndicate, Mazen Al-Natour, revealed direct contact with him and extended an official invitation to him to visit Syria and perform a concert in one of its theatres, in a step that comes about a month and a half after his release in Lebanon.
Al-Natour explained that he made a phone call with Shaker, confirming his adherence to the invitation he had previously addressed to him, while the date of the visit or concert is still undecided, due to the health conditions that the Lebanese artist is going through and the period of recovery and hospitalization that he is currently spending in Doha.
According to other statements by Al-Natour, the union seeks for Syria to be one of the first stops for Shaker’s return to public concerts. Indeed, he previously expressed his desire for his first concert after this stage to be on Syrian territory.
After Shaker’s release, Al-Natour took the initiative to send a public message to him, congratulating him on his safety and inviting him to sing in Syria, describing the country as his “second homeland.” He also welcomed his joining the Syrian Artists Syndicate, which had previously granted him an honorary membership in appreciation of his artistic career and his position on the Syrian issue.
The step to grant Shaker honorary membership goes back to a decision taken by the union in April 2025, before the invitation was renewed more clearly after his release from prison last July, and this time the conversation turned from a symbolic welcome to practical discussion of a possible visit and ceremony.
These developments come after a major shift in Shaker’s judicial process in Lebanon. On July 8, 2026, the Permanent Military Court agreed to release him in 4 security cases filed against him, including the Abra events file, in exchange for financial guarantees, after about 9 months he spent in detention.
After about a week, the court decided to lift the travel ban on him and return his passport, in exchange for his commitment to attend the upcoming judicial sessions, which practically allowed him to leave Lebanon while the judicial process continued in the files pending before the court.
Shaker had surrendered himself to Lebanese Army Intelligence in October 2025 after years spent inside the Ain al-Hilweh camp, so that in-person trials were opened before him instead of the sentences that had previously been issued against him in absentia.
Shaker faces files related to security charges, some of which were linked to the Abra events in 2013 and his previous relationship with Sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir. However, his release does not mean the end of the trials or the closure of the cases, but rather their continuation while he is out of detention.
During the trial sessions, Shaker denied providing financial or logistical support to the prisoner group, while the court heard from a number of witnesses and retired officers as part of reviewing the files related to him.
In parallel with the judicial file, Shaker had gradually returned to the artistic scene in recent years by releasing new songs that achieved wide spread on digital platforms, despite his long absence from concerts and theaters. This made talk about his first public appearance after his release a subject of widespread interest among his fans.
Damascus now seems likely to be one of the most important stations of this return, especially since the head of the Syrian Artists Syndicate is not talking about a mere protocol visit, but rather about a concert, the details of which are being discussed, while Shaker, according to Syrian sources, expressed initial agreement to accept the invitation after the end of the recovery period.
Damascus’ potential embrace of Shaker has a dimension that goes beyond the technical aspect, given his well-known position during the past years on the Syrian crisis and his opposition to the Bashar al-Assad regime, which was one of the reasons that prompted the new Syrian union to honor him and grant him honorary membership after the political change in Syria.
Mazen Al-Natour had assumed the presidency of the Syrian Artists Syndicate in March 2025 as part of a new council for the syndicate, within the framework of restructuring the institutions of the artistic sector after the fall of the previous regime. Since then, the syndicate began reopening its doors to Syrian and Arab artistic names that had moved away from it during the past years.
Hence, Fadel Shaker’s invitation is seen as part of a broader trend through which the union seeks to return Damascus to the map of Arab concerts and attract artists who have been absent from it for years.
The decision remains linked to Shaker’s health condition and his judicial and artistic program, as an official date for the ceremony or its location has not yet been announced, while Al-Natour’s statements indicate that communication is continuing and that the invitation is in place.
If the arrangements are completed, Syria may constitute one of the first major public stations for Fadel Shaker after many years away from the stage, so that the invitation will turn from a message of support after his release into an actual step towards a complete artistic return.
