I know only two words in Arabic. They are 'hello' (marhaba) and 'beloved' (habibi). Habibi can also mean 'I love you' or 'darling.' Since I am a Romantic you may have noticed that unlike some I have learned pleasantries not vulgarities first. Really I am not interested in vulgarities since even in my native tongue English, I rarely use bad words:)
Due to the fact that my Arabic is almost nil, I do not understand it even though I enjoy listening to Arabic music immensely. I adore Arabic pop music particularly. My favorite Arabic singers are Amr Diab, Asala, Tamer Hosni, Wama, Hussein alJasmi, Mustafa Amar, Khaled, Cheb Mami, and Faudel. I used to wonder if I was a little strange when I began to gravitate towards listening to music in languages I did not understand. Then I learned that many people in other societies do the same since in most countries listeners are exposed to American pop music. Many of these listeners do not know English.
During my recent journey to Turkey, where I tried to be a live-in English tutor to a rather dyfunctional Turkish family, they hired a young housekeeper from the country of Georgia. Her name was Kate, and she loved people like Sean Kingston, Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, and Beyonce. She would sing right along with Sean Kingston singing his hit Beautiful Girls, but she had no idea what the words meant since the languages she knew best were Georgian, Russian, and Turkish. There are many others worldwide who love music which languages they don't understand, but the sound captures their imaginations, transports them, or just creates relaxation.
This video is by the Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram. I had heard the song on the Arabic music website Alaghany.com and loved it. It is not one of favorite Arab pop tunes however, but when I finally ran across the video for the song, I was captived. Is it just me, but isn't this video romantic? Enjoy!
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2 comments:
Dear Sincerae,
Finally found your blog. Nice one!
Will add to Internations as soons as we are able to do.
Kindest
Thanks for dropping by Hans:)
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