Nawal Al Zoghbi had an interesting career, her blondish hair makes her the golden girl of Arabic music....just like tens of Arab female voices she came to the scene in the early 90s. She is one of three female voices that came out during that era and still be popular and commercially successful. The other two are Najwa Karam and Diana Hadad. Nawal al Zoghbi still rules pop music and light songs. She never tried to be something she is not....she has been making good albums for years and has been making awesome music videos too.
Her latest album came out more than two years ago and it was a hit, thus production companies started knocking her door because they wanted to be in the Nawal business. Last year she had a sad year she she got divorced from her long time husband and manager. This was a shock to many of us because she was a model wife and had a happy and beautiful family (Diana Hadad also gets divorced). So you know not a good year for Arab female pop singers. On the business side, Nawal is ready with a new alblm and I have never seen so many people ask for it as much as I see now....her fans really want her album and they are bugging her about it.
As we still wait for the album, we revisit one of her best songs in recent memory, a catchy tune with a fun music video where Nawal looks like a million dollar. We do like the storyboard and the concert sitting.
If you are looking for bar hopping towns where scores of beautiful people hangout and enjoy being night owls, no need to leave Arabia. See here is where I and you might disagree. Beirut is an interesting capital, but in this larger than life city, you can find pretty much anything. A posh bar in close proximity to a mosque, western dressed young men and women next to conservative dresses, party in one place, a political rally in another....one thing for sure this city is alive and will always be so.
Maya Nehme, the hottest up and coming Lebanese singer and the graduate of the hit show Star Academy has been making the rounds in her city's clubs and venues, here is a short clip from her performance in one of the bars, I am being told this is appearance at BANK Club BATROUN singing Her new single HABIBI. I am beginning to think that Maya Nehma sounds lot better in live performances. As you will soon discover she is also a good dancer and she has shown a sense of fashion. Congrats Maya as we hear she just got engaged in Cyprus ! Mabrook
I like spoof, I enjoy satire and I love a good farce....I am big on music and when you get me music and mix it with a good spoof I am in cloud 9.
Ghada Abdel Razik, the most popular TV actresses turned mega star is out promoting her new movie (Bon Swareeh) out in mid Dec of 2010....she sings and the song plays like a joke. Like most viewers I enjoy a good joke and the joke even funnier if told by a pretty lady. That's what Bon Swareeh does, it gives you jokes told by a pack of funny female leading ladies of Egyptian cinema.
If you are familiar with Egyptian folklore, you will enjoy the beat, if you a re hip dude and like to drop English words in your conversations, you will also find this song funny. If this movie succeeds commercially, this will be one of the few leading male-free film to become a box office. We do not know if this movie will be well received by movie goers. But if the film does make a good return on investment, 2011 will be a promising year for female leading roles.
غادة عبد الرازق الهانس فى الدانس
ادة عبد الرازق الهانص فى الدانص
كليب غادة عبد الرازق الهانس فى الدانس من فيلم بونسوارية بطولة مروى اللبنانية و مى كساب و حسن حسنى .. انتاج محمد السبكى , اخراج احمد عواض , يعرض 22
May Hariri might as well be the most naturally beautiful female singer to come from Lebanon in ages. She is also a mother which makes her a hot mommy. Her career has been a journey of successes and setbacks. Her most famous story was her ill fated marriage to the popular Lebanese legend Milhim Zain.
In her latest music video that came out last week she takes on the female mechanic, yes that's high heels wearing mechanics. May comes in a different looks including dancing next to a giant telephone. The music video is what you would expect from May as I do not think it serves her career well. As someone who thought her Jaani music video as creative and close to the heart as it gets. I mean the music and the clip itself offered a new experience. The music is not that original so that leaves the lyrics....they are just fine. I think females can relate to this song as they hate to play the phone games and hate the wait. Overall if you are a fan of May, you might enjoy this music video, as for me I feel I am left wanting a bit more or perhaps something different.
I do want to salute May for her efforts in signing up to join the all female aid ship leaving Lebanon and headed to Gaza...very few female stars would care to do that. Good publicity won't hurt either.
Asalah Nasri might not have the best personality among Arab singers, but she does have the best voice, a gift of almighty and the special attention paid to it by her father. I have liked all of her songs and so did my older cousins and my sisters. My parents also enjoyed her cover of the oldies.
Asalah was the number selling female singer in the 90s with a number of hits and songs that vary in style between pop, classical and tarab style. She was also huge in 2000 and she shined when she took on the Gulf dialect, but then she went all Gulf dialect on her fans, her first Gulf album was a hit and everyone appreciated, her second was a mixed bag (Qanon Kifak). Yet in 2008 came a really good album by Asalah where this song Nos Hala came and it brought back all the reason Asalah was Asalah to us, see her exhibit her voice chops in a perfect marriage with the lounge music she used in this song.
Asalah still gets news coverage, but most of it now her fighes with either the renowned Egyptian Hilmi Baker, Salim Al Hindi, the executive at Rotana, not a good idea if you are a serious singer. I will always be a fan of Asalah, and so will hundreds of thousands who come from all age and gender groups...we just need to be sure of it and that's why we cannot wait to hear her latest..
In the West nowadays, you can count a number of talentless celebrities that you famous for being famous....they do not necessary have a gift or a talent that made them famous. I am sure you are too familiar with Paris Hilton and the Kardashian clan, the Situation and a dozen of reality stars. So now you know this is not just an American thing, we have it in Arabia....Weather you like those famous celebrities or not, you must admit they are good at building brands....and forming a fan base in the virtual world that is the envy of every other stars.
Nourhanne is the Arab response to this celebrity obsessed world, this curvy and busty woman that some sees as gorgeous is the latest sensation with the youngsters in Arabia. Nourhanne's latest is a music video titled Beirut Never Sleeps and that name is very true, the song is very upbeat and very loud...you will never sleep to the tone of this song, I LOVE the drum incorporated and I like the affects she used.
I also appreciate the background Lebanese rap throughout the song, the outfits are also new...I like the dance suits and bling you can see. The DJ they used seems to be a showman, and this time they actually developed a storyboard to this video so that's also refreshing. Nothing in the music video tells me this is an Arab capital....this might be as well be talking about NY, LA, Brussels or any other European city. The bars, the clubs, the dancers all give a fantasy, away form reality. The dudes will appreciate the gracious booty and boobs shots either on the dance floor or in that white tunnel. Here it is and remember Nourhanne rhythms with Lindsy Lohan....
Yasmin Abd El Aziz is superwoman of Arabia, she is the hope for female lead cinematic roles. For decades the lead role of all the major Arab blockbusters has been a male. Most of those movies the man takes credit for the success of those movies and he gives secondary roles and supporting ones to a number of female case. Never in the modern history of Arabic film has a woman been able to carry a movie and make it into a blockbuster making millions of dollars.
You name is box officer favorites like Ahmad Saqqa, Ahmad Hilmi, Mohamad Hinidiy, Mohammad Saad, Adel Imam and Ahmad Eiz has always played the leading role in their movies, a huge cast of female actresses have propped them up, but never taken full credit for the success of the movie. Gada Adel, Zina, Mina Shalaby, Noor, Mai Eizdeen, Dina Samir Ghanim Ghada Abdel Razik, Hind Sabry, Mona Zaki, Hana Turk and Yasmin Abd El Aziz. Now those are all fine talented actresses by with few exceptions they have all played secondary roles in which they support the hero. Playing mostly the lady the lead actor falls in love with. To be fair few of those names have taken the lead in films (Hind Sabri in Jeneenat Al Asmak and Mona Zaki in E'Hky Ya Shahrazad) and their movies have been well received by critics and viewers alike, but those two movies have never been a huge commercial success.
Not until someone took a chance on Yasmin Abd El Aziz and gave her the lead role in El Dada Dody. A family comedy about a reformed babysitter that gets intermingled in a web of trouble with criminals after her and cute children and their antics. The movie was a huge commercial success in the of 2009, it was the dark horse of the season. It beat many of the films where the established male lead actors' movies came second to Yasmin Abd El Aziz's movie.
Many actors and show business execs were quick to dismiss El Dada Dody as a one hit wonder, that Yasmin will not be able to pull another commercially successful film. Yasmin followed soon with a post Ramadan movie in the Eid season of 2010 with El Talata Yeshtaghalonha, a comedy about a geeky girl that looks like Ugly Betty that manages to ace her high school diploma and get the highest score in the republic. Then she goes to college and falls in love, and there in college she meets all sorts of characters (the party punks, the activist Marxists, the conservative religious) and of course she runs into various troubles and hilarious scenes. Needless to say the movie was a hit and families flocked to see it in theater. Yasmin established that women actresses can carry a movies and make millions with that she refuted what has become a fact that women cannot take the lead. With that now Arab female roles will see a surge. Other seasoned actresses started sending Yasmin some love for opening the gate to them and showing them what it takes.
Yasmin's Stardom did not come from thin air, she has been making movies for years and in 2007 she has even co started in Alraheena "The Hostage", along the handsome Egyptian actor Ahmad Eiz. This movie was a huge commercial success and in away helped launch the career of Ahmad Eiz as a leading male.
The formula for a movie where a female actress leaders should be like the one Yasmin Abd El Aziz used, she is cute and guys like that so they will love to see her movies. She is childish and funny so you know gets lover to see her. She is wonderful in physical comedies, the one thing that makes a movie fun for the entire family is the clean physical comedy. Unlike many lead male roles, Yasmin does not do dirty jokes or sleazy lines either so that makes viewers comfortable. So in order for a movie to be a box office success the Disney formula woks magic. Securing the children, families and adult demographics guarantees you a blockbuster. Yasmin Abd El Aziz has recorded a song for each of her films and those songs helped promote the movie. She plays up her childish spirit and natural cuteness running around with cute children in dazzling colors. Those are essential to give families an idea about the film and its plot. As someone who appreciates good music and comedy, I enjoy the way Yasmin delivers her comical lines and her confidence by not being self aware.
So Thank You Yasmin.
Yasmin Abd El Aziz - El Dada Dody / ياسمين عبد العزيز - الداده دودي
El Talata Yeshtghalonha / ياسمين عبد العزيز - الثلاثة يشتغلونها
Egyptian Beauty Sandy is releasing her second song in less than 10 days period. "El Helm" or "the Dream" came as a surprise to many of us as Sandy still gaining success from the song she released earlier last week. But I am not complaining, for a pop song, the song does not disappoint and Sandy the starlet has finally found her comfort zone.
The music is a house mix with some Techno beat, sure it makes a good running song that gets you moving and wanting to PARTY.....still the lyrics belong to the romantic subjects that Sandy has covered before. There are original parts of the music, but the beat is not that new...but it works for Sandy's style. the last thing you need form a young pop starlet something to put you to sleep. Many Arab singers fall in this trap, they want a serious song when their fans liked them for their energizing songs....Sandy seems to have walked the middle of the road...giving you some romantic doses but keeping it exciting.
Julia Bourtos, the Lebanese phenomenal singer, the legendary voice that has never been distant from the pulse of the people. Julia posses one of the strongest and by far best female voices in the Arabic scene. She was first known for her nationalistic songs for Lebanon and Palestine, the kind of songs that gets one's heart pumping and blood boiling as the lyrics deliver one knock after another of sad reality of war weakness and disunity. But that was the 80s and for most of the 90s Julia snag for the loved ones, she delivered a number of classics (Ya Osas)
And in 2006 she sang segments of a popular speech of a Lebanese political figure in the wake of Israel war on Lebanon. "Ahabaii", my beloved was that song, the song was about war, victory and people caught in the middle of it all. The song made 3 millions dollars which went to the families of the war victims. What a Sopranos are for!
Another song that is now being used in political campaigns in Egypt this hot election season. "I Fear for my Children" or Khawfi 'Ala Awaldi is a beautiful song about an uncertain future, which what this political party in Egypt wanted to state. Julia's voice is one of those few things that Arabs actually agree on....she is a uniter for sure and she cares.
Yes, we will not have to wait for her much anticipated album that was released mid 2010 where we are promised real music and live orchestra for change. Here is a sample song of it that says one thing, "Julia Boutros ROCKS"
Melissa is a Lebanese export, she started as a beauty pageant winner (Mediterranean Bikini contest), she made couple of good song of course her looks put her ahead of many other female singers, she went out of her way and released a number of songs with Dr. Alban, a rapper from the 80s, but she seems not to have been embraced by the masses.
Now, Melissa has never been a heavy hitter in concerts as you rarely see in one and you seldom read something in the news about. Nothing changed in her looks however so we give you few of her latest pictures of this year 2010.
What do you think will you be buying Melissa's new album now that you know she does have the looks? Let us now in the comment section
