Julia Boutros is one of the most talented ladies of Arabic music, she is Lebanese and whenever the moment calls, you find her come to your aid with her music and vocals. But also there is that charm shehas built throught the years, the mystery of not talking too much to the media.
She cares about Lebanon and the larger Arab world...and so she makes that Arabic music as it used to be made decades ago, live orchestra, real band and real music, not a computer with a monkey in charge. More than a year ago, in the process of recording her album, booked the casino of Lebanon and got her show filmed on DVD in a concert rich in every sense of the word.
Check out this very mature song of hers that plays like a jazz song where the orchestra is lead by an Austrian, but the music here is universal so it all add up. Julia managed in the 2 decades career of hers to get many Lebanese who rarely agree on anything to gather and enjoy a rich experience.
What does the ultimate romantic song sound like? Ask Majda Al Roumy, the Lebanese diva that knows a thing or two about making one. Throughout her career beginning in the 70s and trucking all the way until today.
This one she has performed for her loved one where she tells him that no one fills your place in my heart as you do. Wow, this one is a refreshing one. I do not think they can say stuff like this in other language, and if they can say it they often don't think of it.
The honor for the best father-daughter Arabic Duet goes to Angham and her late father. While they have sang together since the late 80s in 1987 when she made her debut, and they had seen a great relationship on both the professional and personal level.
But toward the end of her father's life, they did not have the best relationship. While her father has sang the song with her in more than one concert, later he would just play the lute next to his daughter. This is a romantic song about that pure unassuming love.
The father daughter team has given us some great moments in Arabic music, this one is the crown of this collaboration.
Angham was much closer to her mother growing up and felt a distant with her father. Per wikipedia:
Angham sang "elGennah Taht Akdamek" (Paradise Is Under Your Feet) as a dedication to the mothers who were present during the concert. Despite winning the contest, Angham recalls how her father was not pleased with her performance and that his negative attitude was the major force that propelled her in a battle between her talents and her inner self to come up with better songs.
On "Maa Hobby" (With Love) talk show in 2005, host Joumana Bou Eid asked Angham how she felt toward her dad after eight years of collaboration in making records. Angham replied "that she owe him many things and that she is lucky he is her father and an important figure in the music industry at the same time". The publicity of Angham's separation from her father whether on a personal or artistic level stabilized Angham's independent entrance into the industry of music
It was 1991 when she released Kalemat, a song that was carried by by Arab radios and TV in a matter of days, the dudes and the gals were singing to this classic song for the relatively then unknown singer Majda El-Roumy. She made her first mas media appearance in Studio El Fan in the 70s. Back then her late father given her most of her songs that tended to be patriotic and Lebanon focused and tended to be oreintal melodies.
Magida was one of the first modern singers to combine western classical music and Arabic classical music (tarab). Her first hit was Am Behlamak Ya Helm Ya Lebnan, written by poet Said Akl and composed by Elias Rahbani.
Magida's self-titled debut album was typical of 1970s Arabic pop, with traditional percussion, a string section, guitar, and keyboard. Her Lebanese patriotism is evident in songs like Nab' El Mahabbeh, which are song in Lebanese Arabic dialect. This is also true of her 1980s songs Layalina Men Layali El Omr and Ya Saken Afkari. Her first work in classical Arabic was La Taghdabi and Salawna. Magida sang a hit rendition of the Abdel Halim Hafez's El Touba in 1987.
In 1991, Magida released Kalimat, her first pan-Arab hit, under the Music Master label. The title song was written by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani and composed by Ihsan El-Mounzer. Other songs by Qabbani were Beirut, Set Eddounia and Ma'a Jarida.
Magida initiated the movement that re-popularized classical Arabic poetry in music and began to fuse East and West. 1994's Ibhath Anni followed the template set by Kalimat. Souad Al Sabah's Kon Sadiqi was about empowerment of women. Other patriotic songs were Oum Etthadda and Saqata Al Qina.
She is one of those heavy weight divas in her country Lebanon where she makes her political views made public. She has also dabbled into acting In 1976 where she Magida starred in Youssef Chahine movie Awdat Al Ibn Al Dal (The Return of the Prodigal Son) providing also 3 soundtracks for the movie. Chahine introduced her as 'the Voice of the 20th Century' and received the 'Egyptian Critics Award'.
And if that's not enough, she has performed one of the most memorable wedding songs that is on everyone's must play song at weddings in places like Lebanon, Syrian and Palestine. Nasheed Al Zafaf "The Wedding Anthem" is her epic song.
She continues to serve as one of those good will ambassadors for the United Nation. She also works with the FAO to combat hunger. There is more more song of hers that is waiting to be released. In this song the lyrics are the work of Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani and composed by none other than her buddy Iraqi composer/singer Katehm Al Saher. Majda has also taken part in the Quincy Jones mega production song for human rights to be released sometimes in the near future.
In October 2010, she had two sold out comeback concerts in Lebanon where the tickets were sold and in minutes once they were made available. Her album is top of the charts and still the biggest album sold till this moment. An album Arabs buy in their country and in their homes away form home. Millions sold becasue this is a collectible item, not just a CD you can download.
Then this year she had a concert in Amsterdam, tickets were sold in under an hour. Arabs living all over Europe snagged the tickets as well as those wealthy Arab tourists traveled to Amsterdam to see this concert of a lifetime. But non Arabs were also in the front row, enjoying the music and raveling the mysteries of this diva and her charming music. Her live orchestra makes the show worth it, all her band had to travel along with her and give their best.
now we have a report on that concert where Fairouz performed, she has the affection and the respect of the fans. some she has gotten old, but you know what her music seems to never lose its magic and the lady still can sing and bring it all back to where it started in the 60s baby.
She is Lebanese and she can sing and dance, but her voices outlived anything and everything she has done. This is a hard to come by old song off hers where she delivered it in Modern Standard Arabic (Fosha, classical) A very well made song where Salwa outdoes herself.
Channeling your emotions are hard and they are harder to do in a tongue you do nto speak very often. But Salwa's talent know not limits. In her case, the music was part of the song, but they only thing that matters is her performance and her emotions that she put on exhibit. While she has sang lighter songs in her history, this is one of those Tarab style songs that you have to have certain level of musical credibility to cover.
Enjoy the performance and the warmth of this dialogue Salwa has perfected. This is poetry not just words, so every word lined there for a reason.
Salwa El Katrib- Oud Bina Ya Layl سلوى القطريب ـ عد بنا يا ليل
Soad Mohammad, the Egyptian singer that has given that country some of the most memorable classic songs we came to love has passed away On July 4th 2011, at the age of 85. She has been ill for some time and have been subjected to a number of surgeries in the heart and the head.
She will be remembered for her career and her legendary voice. She has performed the song for the movie "Alsbhimaa", about the early history of Islam. And has acted in a movie titled "A Young Women From Palestine" and "I am Alone". While she has only acted twice, her songs appeared in a umber of movies where other stars lip synced to her songs. She will be survived by her children and to be buried today in the family's plots.
If I am not mistaken Soad's mother is Syrian Lebanese. She was living in Syria before she was discovred and shipped to Egypt where she became a star for generations. وحشتني عدد كلام .. الهوى " سعاد محمد "
When Carole Samah was announced as the actress singer who will be filling in the role of Lebanese golden diva Sabah, I was skeptical. She looks nothing like her and there are other stars who could take on the role. But I know that Carole worked hard for the role and used every bit of influence she has.
The slowly we are seeing more of Carole in the role, and the more we see, the more believable she seems in that role. As we watch the promotional song for the TV drama "Maleka 3al Ard", you are offered a timeless journey throughout the history of Arabic music for at least 70 years.
The series preview seems to focus on the personal life of Sabah more than on her music, we are being told there will be 20 songs in the series. There are at least three shots where Sabah gets slapped by some dude, did that really happen did her husband abuse her?
On the art side, this is looking like a really great picture with lots of characters, colors, and a bigger budget than many works we have seen. Coming to think of it, this is a history of Lebanon, Egypt and artists making Arabic music for ages.
You will see a lot of male actors trying to win over Sabah, lots of cool cars! There is a lot a lot of drama, which goes with the art from. There is some truth behind the drama, but since the directors do not want to be sued by artists and their estate for making accusation, they would be smart not call it facts.
Titled "This Night, There's no sleep", this sleepless night is not a sad album, this is for those who like to stay up and party all night to the tunes of Najwa Karam adn the beat of her album. I think this album Najwa had to make for herself to tell herself, that "I am the diva out here", and you know what it's her best album in 3 years. Her energy, vocals and music makes a great comeback.
This is the all Lebanese album of the year, she pulls no punches and holds nothing back as Najwa Karam is back with Rotana and this album make her their first lady and possibly their best seller. The faith of the music executives in her star power is clear in the 8 track album, no one makes those anymore, they go for a minimum of 10, but with Najwa they know the quality always triumphs the quantity.
Every summer Najwa Karam releases a strong album with at least 7 awesome songs, this album is no different, and comes this album with her favorite company Rotana that loves Najwa's business. They had a rough batch last year, but they kissed and made up. Najwa has not spoken much about this album, she has been doing a lot of TV shows, not many concerts lately, but you can bet with this album she will be all over Lebanon.
01 - Ma Fi Noom, new fresh and dance workout, you are in for a surprise 02 - Ya Bayye, a chance for Najwa to reveal her sweet vocals 03 - Shou Halyaly, no one flirts in Lebanese better than Najwa does 04 - Tamma3tak, great music and delightful lyrics 05 - Law Bas Ta3rif, the sweetest and most real song Najwa has sang in years 06 - 3ayni Bi 3aynak, let the games play, the beat is hard to miss 07 - Bayya3 Al Yanassib, creative concept that allows Najwa to shine 08 - Dallel, best title and bittersweet song that puts Najwa in her comfort zone
Najwa Karam Ma Fi Noom 3D 2011 كليب نجوى كرم " مافى نوم " اول كليب
Warda does not need to say something she does not have to say, she only says what she feels, her career and legacy allow for that so she can be candied about what Arab voices she likes. In a recent interview with Egyptian publication Almasry Alyoum the names of those Arab stars she enjoys:
Wael Jassar got the first shout out from this diva, she complimented his work (Lebanese)
Bahaa Sultan, the singer with the strong voice (Iraqi)
Fadel Shaker, she loves his sentimental style and his emotions, she worries that he might be quitting music. (Lebanese)
Sherine, the current Egyptian diva in the making
Amal Maher who came to be known for the best Oum Kaltoum covers
Angham, you cannot talk about Egyptian female singers and overlook this talent
George Wassouf whose songs she enjoys as well (Syrian)
Hussian Al Jasmiy, this talented singer for the United Arab Emirates keep on giving us surprises and new songs that scream "awesome"
Warda has also named few other singers who have covered her old songs that she enjoyed on the list is Saber Rebai,George Wassouf, Fadel Shaker, Amal Maher, Sherine.
She likes Tamer Hosny movies, but not a huge fan of his melodies and songs--she calls them light
This must be great for those singers she has named, she is the timeless star that keeps on giving us hits. She respects her legacy and gives very few interviews. الموسيقار بليغ حمدي ووردة دويتو عندليبية
She was a diva, and now we know she hardly found happiness in her own life, she give many joys and has entertained for 75 years, now gets another treatment of her biopic coming soon this Ramadan, a drama about her life with Carole Samahe on the leading role. Seeing the images of Carole Samahe in the role of Sabah gives me a second thought, the makeup is heavy bordering creepy.
This is a drama not a 100 percent accurate picture, it's a story about Sabah's life and legacy with a lot of truth and personal accounts of this Lebanese diva life. Sure her marriages were many, making her filled with drama and tragedy. There will be at least 20 songs in the TV adaption, Carole Samahe is doing the theme song about the Life of Sabah.
The song hails Chahroura, as queen on earth among her fans and her followers. I must say the song paints a new picture for Sabah, it talks about her life that we do not know much about. We only know the happy face of Sabah, her romance and her movies. Nothing much about her personal struggle, family and drama. The show also focuses on Sabah's sense of fashion and style as she was one of the first Arab divas to pay a lot of attention to her outfits.
This is shaping to be a great work, I love the prelude for the song, the dialogue from the show, where Sabah complains about her inability go give others happiness when she is sad. comes the response for a dude, why are you always great?
اغنية كارول سماحه - ملكه على الارض|اغنية مسلسل الشحرورة Carole Samah Mosalsal Chahroura
She is the mother of all those folksy Lebanese songs the world came to love, telling stories from all those famous Lebanese towns and pockets. Tarablos, Ba3albak, Beirut, Al 7amrah...and such she has sang for those places in the 80s and 70s.
It's like taking a grant tour of Lebanon when you listen to a Samira Toufic song, she makes a great tour guide to that country. Her fame did not come easy, the particular style of singing she has mastered has been for long dominated by manly males with solid voices.
For sometime growing up, I thought I knew a lot of cool songs that seemed very close to my own Palestinian tongue, when I went back to Gaza, and I saw those songs were played then like they were local songs, I was excited. I learned a lot about my home through Samira Tawfik songs and music. With her sweet and bold voice, the stores she told made life colorful.
Sabah El Chahroura, the notorious Lebanese blonde diva has just been given another award, this award is special to Sabah it comes at her home Lebanon where she suffered neglect and ridicule for years. See when you had half of the career Sabah had, you can start judging her. She is 87 years old now, and has been a star for 75 years of those.
Sabah El Chahroura had sang more than 4 thousand songs and dozens of movies that go on to live in the collective Arab memory. The Lebanese President President. Michel Suleiman bestowed the award on the diva during the Beet Al Deen music festival. The First Lady of Lebanon Wafaa gave the medal to Sabah who was present and said to the people attending the event, "I Love you, because it was you who brought me here"
The Medal is the highest in the land, The National Ceder Medal with the highest honor granted for a civilian. The music festival will go on till August first featuring a number of Lebanese, Arab and European performances.
Sabah & Rola - Yana Yana / صباح و رولا - يانا يانا
Some Lebanese divas have a magical life and enjoy a great deal of pampering due to their fortune and fame. Others make music videos to show that their life is more interesting that it really is. Take Melissa, a pop singer from Lebanon with a number of hits, but no knockouts in her career.
Now comes a new music video with colors, attitude and style. But what's missing is creativity. The story of the music video is very old. The images and cinematography are dazzling however. The make up and the outfits are awesome. But the vocals are not the best thing about the music video.
Can Melissa be a star in the radio ear? Unlikely, but in this image obsessed world, she can be and she is.
Hiba Al Kawas is a Lebanese gem, she is a great vocalists and a performer of serious songs accompanied by live orchestra. She is also a lot more than that. Hiba is operatic soprano, composer and academic.
Hiba Al Kawas has composed for symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, string orchestra, various ensembles, piano, and voice. In her compositions traditional Arabic instruments are included in the orchestra. Her compositions combine Oriental-Arabic music components with international composition techniques, forming a bridge between Oriental-Arabic music, classical and neo classical forms, and contemporary music. Making her One of the few remarkable women in the world of music today, remarkable for her talent, creativity, artistic and intellectual personality.
Since her first concert at the age of six, Hiba Al Kawas has performed in many concerts in Lebanon, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Cairo, Tunis, Bahrain, London, Paris, Italy, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Portugal, and Amsterdam. She has established a career in Lebanon and the Arab world, bringing into existence Arabic opera. She developed and adapted operatic vocal techniques to find the proper voice placement to preserve the Arabic pronunciation and singing tradition. She frequently performs her own vocal compositions in concerts.
Hiba al Kawas - sawtiya alsama2 - هبة القواس - صوتي السماء
She was born in Lebanon for an Egyptian father and a Syrian mother in 1935. So she combined the best of Arabic art homes. Almost all great Arabic music comes from one of those three places. But for some reason, Soad lacks the name recognition of other Arab singers of her time, not sure why that is. I know she is well known for her songs that accompanied the movie, "AlShimaa".
Soad started her music career in Syria where she used to live in Damascus, she started on the radio performing the famous Mowasha'hat. Moving then to Halab, the Syrian city with great musical tradition where she was described as the best female voice ever heard in that part of the world. Composer Mohammad Mohsen took her under his wings.
Then she moved to Cairo to play a role in a movie titled "A Girl Women From Palestine" a drama about Palestine. She made a second movie "I am Alone". Then she focused on her singing career. She recorded 3 thousand songs in both the Syrian, Egyptian and Arab radios.
Khaled Agag and Shima Al Shaib, two Egyptain singers that did covers of her older songs and made their careers and helped introduce me to this underrated Arab diva.
Souad Mohamed - Iradat alhayat سعاد محمد تغني الشابي - ارادة الحياة
One of the greatest tragic stories of Arab singers is the story of Ismahan, the Syrian singer who made a home in Egypt along with her brother Farid Al Atrach, they come from a royal family in Syria, that lost everything. While she never found real happiness in her personal life, she gave many the reason to be happy.
She was born in the sea and died in the water when her car fell in a river or was that an assassination plot? They accuse her of being a spy, but no one really knows much about that. She was worrying Oum Kalthoum who saw her as part of the competition.
If you are a follower of Ismahan, you can almost laways detect a sense of sadness in her songs, even her most famous song Layaly Al Onis Fi Vienna reveals much of that sentiment from this gifted singer that has a troubled life and more mysteries than a mystery novel. She is what she is..
Angham has a lot of happy songs in her career, even thought her marriage did not work too well and her own father was not on the best terms with her, but she does not stop making some of the finest Arabic music. While she is talking about her new projects, and she will be filming a new music video from her latest mini album--the funky one.
The mother of two cute boys has did well raising them so that must speaks volume of her motherhood. But this is a music blog so let's talk about one of her songs released in 1993, Shan6it Safar, travel suitcase. About her longing to the lover. She sounds broken and at loss.
If you are looking for a really sad song, or if you want to know how it feels to be left behind when your loved one is away. See why women are different than men, and how emotions take a heavy tool on them in their distance
Algerian diva is a living legend, she is one of those singers that passes the test of time, one of the few singers that both men and women agree one. Not just that across generations, she has an appeal that many wish to accomplish.
I love watching old concert footage of this lady that till this day is rocking the Arabic music world, she has an album coming out this year, she just performed in Morocco's Mawazeen music festival in the opening day. And the Star Academy fought really hard to get her to come on the show.
While she makes Egypt her home--easier for her career, her heart is always in Algeria and she is one of those Algerian figures that are untouchable virtually anywhere you go. When the Egyptians and Algerians were not the best friends during the world cup qualifiers, tension was hight. She was in Egypt doing just fine.
I am glad to see her performing and helping people live moments of the past and earning herself new fans with her gems that stays with people, moves people and lives in people's memories.
Haifa Wahbe is a hit and mis singer, she knows how to make a hit and if she really feels strongly about a song, she will work her tail off to make it a hit. I have not been reading many press releases or interviews from this Lebanese diva, one of the most recognizable faces in Arab pop is none other than Haifa.
But few years ago, I remember I liked one of her songs because I thought it was original and fun. While her pop songs often do well commercially, this song hit the people with some fresh concept. I am speaking of course about Raghab, the song that uses the name of an Arab dude and Haifa asks him to keep his friend away form her.
This song and its like fit Haifa more than other styles, the baladi style seems to be her comfort zone, I do not think pop is her best side--even she did well there. I think she channels a bit of Soad Hosny and those tongue in cheek songs that are liked by both men and women. So you know if you go to a Haifa Wahbe concert, this song will be performed.
