[tadamon-l] Audio: Fayrouz & the Israeli Attack on Lebanon

[Tadamon!]

Audio: Fayrouz & the Israeli Attack on Lebanon

http://tadamon.resist.ca/index.php/?p=470

Listen / Download an audio report on Lebanese singer Fayrouz. This report 
touches on the important historical and present day role of the famous 
Lebanese singer within the Lebanese identity. This report was produced 
during the height of the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon in Cairo, Egypt 
for a BBC World Service program, Global Hit. This excellent report 
features music from Fayrouz and live interviews from Egypt.

* Broadcast Details from BBC World Service's Global Hit:

The impact of the war on Lebanese civilians has outraged many in the 
Middle East. Some have chosen to give voice to their feelings, like this 
crowd of demonstrators in downtown Cairo, chanting slogans in support of 
Hezbollah and calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to 
Egypt. But many others have chosen to listen. To a sweet, familiar sound.

The songs of Lebanese diva Fayrouz are everywhere across the Arab world 
these days: on the radio, music video channels and private tape decks. 
Listening to Fayrouz has become a small act of solidarity with Lebanon.

Like many other of her songs, "To Beirut," celebrates the beauty of 
Fayrouz's homeland and the city she grew up in. Fayrouz is the stage name 
of Nouhad Haddad. It means "turquoise" in Arabic, and was suggested to her 
by a mentor, who once said her voice was like a precious stone.

Fayrouz grew up in a modest Christian Lebanese family, and she began her 
career as a singer on Lebanese National Radio in the late 1940s. By the 
60s, she was one of the Middle East's most famous performers. The 
70-year-old chanteuse's songs are familiar to a generation of Arab music 
lovers. And now, with this war, old and new fans are listening to them 
more than ever.

At a mall in Downtown Cairo, a clerk named Shadi sells tapes and CD's.

Shadi: "There are a lot of people buying Fayrouz's songs about Lebanon. 'I 
Love You Lebanon,' 'The True Lebanon is Coming,' her songs about Beirut. 
These songs have all sold out."

Fayrouz's songs were composed by her husband and his brother, the famous 
Rahbani brothers. They introduced ground-breaking new orchestral 
arrangements that mixed Eastern and Western styles. Many of Fayrouz's 
songs are classic love ballads, like the popular tune, "Kaifak Enta," or 
"How Are You?"

Other songs are laments on Lebanon's troubled history. In "They Barricaded 
The Streets," Fayrouz sings of life in Beirut during the 15-year Lebanese 
Civil War, with lyrics such as, "they barricaded the streets, they planted 
cannons and cleared the squares, I couldn't find my house, no roses or 
fence."

Fayrouz never left her homeland throughout the entire Civil War, which 
lasted from 1975 to 1990. This devotion to her homeland has helped make 
her something of a national treasure at home. And elsewhere in the Arab 
world, she has become synonymous with her country.

Shadi: "When we say Fayrouz, we say Lebanon. They're one and the same 
thing. She's to Lebanon what the pyramids are to Egypt." That's Shadi, the 
Cairo music vendor.

In fact, Fayrouz is such a potent symbol that when two private Egyptian 
telephone companies set up a line to collect humanitarian donations for 
Lebanon, they decided to play her music.

Callers pay about 15 cents a minute to hear Fayrouz's voice. In its first 
week, the line logged more than thirty thousand calls. The money goes to 
Lebanese children.

Fayrouz was scheduled to sing at the 2006 Baalbek music festival this 
summer. The festival is Lebanon's most famous musical event, and was the 
first place where Fayrouz performed live, back in 1957. It would have 
started on July 13, but the festival was cancelled when the bombs started 
falling. Now Fayrouz's fans across the Arab world are left wondering when 
they'll see her perform again.

For the World, I'm Ursula Lindsey, in Cairo.

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