Former Oct 7 hostage turns his experience in captivity into a musical album

Last Monday evening, the central lawn of Kibbutz Nir Oz – one of the hardest-hit communities on Oct. 7, 2023 – hosted a very different kind of gathering: a music festival built around the debut solo performance of Sagui Dekel-Chen, who was taken hostage from his home there that day and is now releasing his debut album, Minus One.

Dekel-Chen wrote and composed all nine songs on the album during his 498 days in Hamas captivity. The album's title refers to the level of the tunnel network where he spent most of that time, memorizing lyrics, imagining the instrumentation and holding the songs – and himself – together entirely in his head.

A year and a half after his release on Feb. 15, 2025, he was finally ready to share that music with the world.

The album is now available on streaming platforms, following its live debut at Nir Oz as part of the Israel Festival, an event running at multiple locations across Israel this month. Around 3,000 people attended – by far the largest gathering held at the kibbutz since the Oct. 7 attacks.

Guests received song booklets featuring Dekel-Chen's hostage-release poster on the cover. At the end of the booklet, after the printed lyrics, Dekel-Chen included a short note.

"I'm not a singer, I'm a father who sings. I never intended to become a singer, or to sing. I was kidnapped, they took everything from me," he wrote. "What they didn't take, simply because they didn't know about it, was the real strength from within. That helped me preserve hope, health and sanity."

Dekel-Chen has said he waited to perform his songs publicly until every hostage had been released, with the timeline further shaped by developments in the war, his own medical treatment, and other personal matters.

But once the moment was right, there was no question where his first performance would happen. "There was no chance my first performance would be anywhere other than here, in Nir Oz, at my home," he wrote.

The kibbutz lawn where he performed was also the site of his childhood, the place he first met his wife, Avital, and where he later raised his own children. It was also where, on Oct. 7, he fought off invading terrorists and watched friends die.

"This event is not a celebration, not a party, not closure, not a victory," he wrote. "It is simply part of the story."

Dekel-Chen said he hopes the concert will help contribute to the kibbutz's rehabilitation – though he himself has chosen not to move back there for now.