[2025] Anti-war songs in Western music: Songs that pray for peace

Funeral for JusticeMdou Moctar

Mdou Moctar- “Funeral for Justice” (Official Music Video)

Mdou Moctar, a guitarist from Niger known as the “Hendrix of the Sahara.” The title track from his band’s May 2024 album, Funeral for Justice, is a scathing indictment of a world where injustice prevails.

Confronting the exploitation and inequality facing his homeland, he describes his guitar as a “cry for help.” His playing slices through our indifference like a siren.

Although the song was created before the 2023 coup, the hardships the band endured afterward lend it an even greater sense of urgency.

Listening to this work, you realize you can’t look away and dismiss it as a distant country’s tragedy.

Will you lend an ear to the sound of his soul—fiery music that pleads for peace?

Bajo los EscombrosResidente, Amal Murkus

Residente, Amal Murkus – Bajo los escombros (Live Session)

The prayer-like singing that echoes from beneath the rubble makes my chest tighten.

Created by Puerto Rican rapper Residente together with Palestinian singer Amal Murkus, this work is nothing short of a cry from the soul.

Amal Murkus is an activist who continues to advocate for peace and rights through culture.

In this song, Residente’s accusatory rap intersects with Murkus’s Arabic vocals, as if singing of the anguish of people whose everyday lives have been stolen by bombings and their love for their homeland.

Included on the album “Las Letras Ya No Importan,” released in February 2024, the track was postponed from its original release date in response to the humanitarian crisis.

On nights when you feel powerless in the face of events in distant countries, why not listen quietly, alone?

Deira (ft. MC Abdul)Saint Levant

Saint Levant – Deira ft. MC Abdul (Official Video)

This work transforms the memory of a lost homeland into an unwavering will to resist, sung with powerful conviction.

Sun Levan, an artist with Palestinian roots, poured into this piece the sorrow of seeing the hotel in Gaza where he spent his childhood destroyed in a January 2024 attack.

“I won’t forget the place my father built, where I spent the best times of my life”—his poignant resolve comes through clearly.

Standing alongside fellow Gaza-born young rapper MC Abdul, he voices love for his homeland and a plea for liberation—an appeal that will deeply move those of us living in peace.

The track is featured on his debut album “Deira,” released in June 2024.

Rather than looking away as if it were a distant country’s story, why not listen to the cry of their souls?

War is a GodJesse Welles

War is a God

Jesse Wells, a singer-songwriter from Arkansas who is often called the conscience of modern America.

In 2024, he was chosen as Saving Country Music’s inaugural Songwriter of the Year, a testament to his widely acclaimed talent.

Woven into this work is a searing question: Why must those who believe in the same God kill one another over a single interpretation of scripture? The words, carried by a quiet guitar, come across as a stern indictment of people who persist in conflict.

This piece is a track from the album “Middle,” set for release in February 2025.

When you feel the emptiness of consuming distant wars as mere information, why not listen to his voice and consider what we can do?

On This Land (feat. SOL Band)Saint Levant

Saint Levant – On This Land feat. SOL Band (Official Visualizer)

Can you imagine the pain and voices of resistance of people driven from their homelands, who have lost any place to return to? The artist San Luvan, who has Palestinian roots and spent his childhood in Gaza, answers that question with music.

The opening track of his debut album DEIRA, released in June 2024, features the Gaza-born Sol Band and powerfully portrays love and dignity tied to the land.

Over a sound where traditional Arab melodies intersect with contemporary rap, the song gives voice to the piercing belief that the pride of a displaced people and the bonds of family are their greatest weapons.

Rather than consuming a distant country’s conflict as news, if you want to receive it as the cry of the souls who live there, this work will resonate in your heart, making the wish for peace feel all the more urgent.

Palestine Will RiseAbe Batshon, Samer & Sammy Shiblaq

Palestine Will Rise by Abe Batshon, Samer & Sammy Shiblaq

This is a track by U.

S.

-based Palestinian artists Abe Batshon, Sameer, and Sami Siblak.

Set to a powerful hip-hop beat, it’s a protest song infused with solidarity for their homeland and a prayer for peace, portraying a refusal to yield to senseless violence and a fierce cry for their very existence.

Released in February 2024, the work continues the message Abe Batshon has voiced in pieces like “Free Palestine.” Faced with tragedies unfolding far away, it’s easy to feel powerless.

But listening to their soul-stirring cry is surely not in vain.

Instead of thinking it has nothing to do with you, why not lean in and truly hear their voices?

Before & AfterAdnan Joubran

BEFORE & AFTER Official clip

Everyday life lost to war, and yet hope still played as if in prayer.

This is the sonic landscape painted by Adnan Joubran, an oud player from Palestine.

Born into a musical family spanning four generations, his attempt in this piece was to weave in the sounds of Gaza before its destruction, along with the voices of children.

The gentle echoes of days gone by overlap with the mournful timbre of the oud, confronting us with the question of what has been lost.

Released on October 6, 2024, the work carries his searing message.

Rather than dismissing it as a distant country’s affair, why not listen when you wish to reflect on the lives that undeniably existed there and contemplate the true meaning of peace?