Post by chris on Sept 30, 2004 11:33:13 GMT -5
Egyptian pop singer Hakim performs at 8 p.m. Friday, October 1st, at the Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland.
For tickets or more information, go to www.aff.org/press.php, or call (415) 218-1801.
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Thanks to him, we may soon be shaking to sha'bi
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2004
He has sold more than 8 million records, recorded music with James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and was one of a select group of artists (including Joan Baez, Mick Fleetwood, Gloria Gaynor and Country Joe McDonald) invited to perform at the World Peace Music Awards last Saturday in San Francisco.
The Egyptian singer known as Hakim (he uses just one name) is one of the Arab world's most popular performers. His music -- danceable pop that originated in the streets of Cairo -- is called sha'bi. Like Algerian rai music, which also stems from a restive urban culture, sha'bi offers listeners a chance to vent their feelings about love, romance, money -- anything that's worth laughing and crying about.
Though Hakim's favorite subject seems to be love, he also sings a lot about cultural understanding, as on his latest album, "El Yomen Dol," which features a duet with Brown about the need for people to connect and leave their problems behind them. The album also features a song that says Islam is a religion of peace and asks listeners to respond in kind. It's a cliche to say this in a post-Sept. 11 world, but Hakim wants to bring Americans and Arabs closer together. He wants audiences to revel in lively music that's obviously of Arab origin but also reflects an increasingly global culture.
"I want to bring the two cultures to bond even more," says Hakim in a phone interview from Cairo, before flying to the United States for his latest tour, which stops in Oakland Friday at the Scottish Rite Center.
Other Arab artists have established an audience in the West, including the rai singers Khaled (who is based in Paris) and Cheb Mami (who recorded the hit "Desert Rose" with Sting). Like Khaled and Mami, Hakim has an infectious stage presence. He caters to his audience by bounding around and yelling encouragement to them.
"He's extremely charismatic, and when he starts performing, he's absolutely delightful -- he's completely on," says Scott Marcus, a professor of ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara who wrote an extensive chapter on Hakim for a forthcoming book, "Music in the Middle East."
Hakim, who sings in Arabic, is working hard to establish an American audience. During his last U.S. tour, he played at Borders bookstores for free. "El Yomen Dol," which is not yet available in the United States (it was released in Egypt in April), could be Hakim's breakthrough project here.
The album was produced by Narada Michael Walden, who worked with Wonder before and encouraged him to play on the song "Ya lahwi." The song, which takes its title from an expression that means "Wow!" is about a man who tells people about a woman he has just seen -- about her eyes, her cheeks and everything else.
"I couldn't believe it," says Hakim, recalling when Walden told him that Wonder wanted to record the song "Ya lahwi" with him.
Hakim, who is 42, got a relatively late start in music. His first record deal came in 1992, though he performed for 10 years before that in settings that ranged from street corners to small clubs. Sha'bi music sprang up in Egypt in the late 1970s, at a time when the orchestral traditions of Oum Kalthoum had been dominant. Because it's music of the street, sha'bi is looked down upon by some elements of Egyptian society. On his previous album, Hakim did a song called "El salaam aleikum," which refers to the Arabic greeting "peace be upon you" that Muslims give upon meeting another person. Members of the Egyptian Senate said that the song was not reverential enough to the saying, but "El salaam aleikum" became a huge hit in the Arab world.
"There were some people who misunderstood the song and wanted to twist the meaning of the song," Hakim says in words that are translated by his wife, Jihane Odabachi. " 'Salaam aleikum' is a greeting, and I wanted to remind people of the meaning behind the greeting. It doesn't just mean 'hello' -- it's much more important; it's about giving peace."
When Brown first heard the song, he liked it so much he wanted to rerecord it with Hakim for "El Yomen Dol." But Hakim believed the song was already too popular to rerecord, so he and Brown settled on "Lela," which means "night" in Arabic.
Hakim lives near the main square in Cairo where he used to perform. He still identifies with those streets, even though he sings regularly at expensive wedding parties in Egypt and, says Marcus, has developed a new nickname: sha'bi chic.
"He's a hipper version or a modern version of sha'bi," says Marcus. "The people who started sha'bi really did have a kind of angry street feel to their music. He made it very chic-sounding. His followers are not just people on the street but people in the upper classes."
For tickets or more information, go to www.aff.org/press.php, or call (415) 218-1801.
---
Thanks to him, we may soon be shaking to sha'bi
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, September 30, 2004
He has sold more than 8 million records, recorded music with James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and was one of a select group of artists (including Joan Baez, Mick Fleetwood, Gloria Gaynor and Country Joe McDonald) invited to perform at the World Peace Music Awards last Saturday in San Francisco.
The Egyptian singer known as Hakim (he uses just one name) is one of the Arab world's most popular performers. His music -- danceable pop that originated in the streets of Cairo -- is called sha'bi. Like Algerian rai music, which also stems from a restive urban culture, sha'bi offers listeners a chance to vent their feelings about love, romance, money -- anything that's worth laughing and crying about.
Though Hakim's favorite subject seems to be love, he also sings a lot about cultural understanding, as on his latest album, "El Yomen Dol," which features a duet with Brown about the need for people to connect and leave their problems behind them. The album also features a song that says Islam is a religion of peace and asks listeners to respond in kind. It's a cliche to say this in a post-Sept. 11 world, but Hakim wants to bring Americans and Arabs closer together. He wants audiences to revel in lively music that's obviously of Arab origin but also reflects an increasingly global culture.
"I want to bring the two cultures to bond even more," says Hakim in a phone interview from Cairo, before flying to the United States for his latest tour, which stops in Oakland Friday at the Scottish Rite Center.
Other Arab artists have established an audience in the West, including the rai singers Khaled (who is based in Paris) and Cheb Mami (who recorded the hit "Desert Rose" with Sting). Like Khaled and Mami, Hakim has an infectious stage presence. He caters to his audience by bounding around and yelling encouragement to them.
"He's extremely charismatic, and when he starts performing, he's absolutely delightful -- he's completely on," says Scott Marcus, a professor of ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara who wrote an extensive chapter on Hakim for a forthcoming book, "Music in the Middle East."
Hakim, who sings in Arabic, is working hard to establish an American audience. During his last U.S. tour, he played at Borders bookstores for free. "El Yomen Dol," which is not yet available in the United States (it was released in Egypt in April), could be Hakim's breakthrough project here.
The album was produced by Narada Michael Walden, who worked with Wonder before and encouraged him to play on the song "Ya lahwi." The song, which takes its title from an expression that means "Wow!" is about a man who tells people about a woman he has just seen -- about her eyes, her cheeks and everything else.
"I couldn't believe it," says Hakim, recalling when Walden told him that Wonder wanted to record the song "Ya lahwi" with him.
Hakim, who is 42, got a relatively late start in music. His first record deal came in 1992, though he performed for 10 years before that in settings that ranged from street corners to small clubs. Sha'bi music sprang up in Egypt in the late 1970s, at a time when the orchestral traditions of Oum Kalthoum had been dominant. Because it's music of the street, sha'bi is looked down upon by some elements of Egyptian society. On his previous album, Hakim did a song called "El salaam aleikum," which refers to the Arabic greeting "peace be upon you" that Muslims give upon meeting another person. Members of the Egyptian Senate said that the song was not reverential enough to the saying, but "El salaam aleikum" became a huge hit in the Arab world.
"There were some people who misunderstood the song and wanted to twist the meaning of the song," Hakim says in words that are translated by his wife, Jihane Odabachi. " 'Salaam aleikum' is a greeting, and I wanted to remind people of the meaning behind the greeting. It doesn't just mean 'hello' -- it's much more important; it's about giving peace."
When Brown first heard the song, he liked it so much he wanted to rerecord it with Hakim for "El Yomen Dol." But Hakim believed the song was already too popular to rerecord, so he and Brown settled on "Lela," which means "night" in Arabic.
Hakim lives near the main square in Cairo where he used to perform. He still identifies with those streets, even though he sings regularly at expensive wedding parties in Egypt and, says Marcus, has developed a new nickname: sha'bi chic.
"He's a hipper version or a modern version of sha'bi," says Marcus. "The people who started sha'bi really did have a kind of angry street feel to their music. He made it very chic-sounding. His followers are not just people on the street but people in the upper classes."