A lifetime comes and goes
And as my friend the rose said only yesterday
“This morning I was born
And baptised in the dawn
I flowered in the dew
And life was fresh and new
The sun shone through the cold
And through the day I grew
By night-time I was old”
The Rose by Françoise Hardy
The original singer for “Comme d’habitude” was with my father in school. Lot’s of singers sang it with its original French lyrics including, Michel Sardou, Mireille Mathieu, Lara Fabian, Cheb Khaled, Faudel and Rachid Taha. Frank Sinatra sang it in English and called it My Way, and you can see Elvis and Nina Simone singing it too. Also Gipsy Kings and Infierno 18 had a Spanish versions of it, as well as some Arabic singer that I never heard of before.
Finally, here is the original song by Claude François:
Koum Tara is an Algerian song, you can see it here being sang by Beihdja Rahal, it was also sang by the two worldwide known Algerians Cheb Mami and Enrico Macias. And finally, in the video above, it is played by a Chinese orchestra.
Most of us know that song by Fairuz called Bint El Shalabiya.
But recently I noticed another Iraqi singer, Ilham Madfaay singing the same song.
After some googling, it appears that the original music is from a Syrian Folklore Music called “El Ozoubeya Talet Alayya”. See Sabah Fakhry singing the Syrian folklore here.
And finally, here is the music played on Ud by Mounir Bachir
And Charbel Rouhana
“Llegan voces” is a song inspired by the #15M, #DemocraciaRealYa movement in Spain. The song connects the Spanish movement to the ‘Arab Spring’. Leila Nachawati presented on the connections between these two movements at the Third Arab Bloggers Meeting taking place right now. Check out her presentation here.
Polyushka Polye (Russian spelling: Полюшко Поле) is a Soviet Russian-language song. It means “Plain Fields”, I guess. The music was by Lev Knipper, composed in the 1920’s or early 1930’s. The song was covered many times. Here is a cover by a Turkish musician called Ahmet Koç. And this one is by Blackmore’s Night, under the name Gone “With The Wind”. And finally there is this remix.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyushko_Pole
A 25 years old Latin American song, yet it looks like it also suits the former Egyptian State Security and other military and security services that exist nowadays all over the Arab world.
Thanks to Jenny Cascante González for sharing this video.
On the occasion the qualification of Uruguay today to reach the round of 16 in Fifa World Cup 2010, let me share here one of the most famous pieces of music ever. It’s like the national anthem for tango, yet it’s from Uruguay and not Argentina as you’d have expected. It’s called “La Cumparsita” and was written by Gerardo Matos Rodríguez more than 90 years ago.
