One of the really interesting things about living in Nicosia is stark contrast between the Greek and Turkish halves of the city, and the country for that matter. The contrast extends across the full political, social and cultural spectrum. The currency is different, the language is different, the clothing is different, and yes, the music is different.
It could be just me, but I'm sensing a certain recurring theme among the Greek entries??
The singer on these clips is Abdul Halim Hafez, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever male singers ever across the Arab world. He was Egyptian, and his songs became so popular that arenas and stadiums could not handle the crowds. Halim later began to perform in deserts and outdoor arenas, some of which attracted up to 100,000 people. He was admired and respected across the Arab world and beyond. More than 150 million people watched simultaneously on TV when Halim performed live concerts. He never released an album in his life, being purely a live singer. He died in 1977 at the age of 48. His funeral in Cairo was attended by millions of people - more than any funeral in Middle Eastern history. The entire Middle East was in total stand still with sadness and shock when they heard of his death, and many thousands of people wore black clothing for more than a year to honour him.
Sarah is slowly learning to tolerate my growing interest in Arabic, Turkish and Greek music, but there are limits to every relationship........
And just one more clip below (nothing to do with Cyprus), but rather because it's from my favourite film. Everything Angus has learned about Arabic dancing comes from this film:
A brief sojourn along the radio frequencies in the car as you drive around Nicosia reveals this contrast in clear terms. One radio station blaring the latest in Greek turbo folk or disco, whilst another will be playing some smooth Arabic crooner or possibly the Turkish equivalent of turbo folk (which is generally easier to digest with some fairly heavy duty ear plugs).
Modern Greek music seems to be all about either a) hairy chested guys wearing alot of white and dancing aggressively or b) not so hairy chested females prancing about wearing not a lot and generally linked up with some sort of American-style rap theme.
The clips below may help to illustrate my point.
Firstly, Greece's two entries to the 2009 and 2010 Eurovision song contest:
It could be just me, but I'm sensing a certain recurring theme among the Greek entries??
And now for something Turkish:
And then of course the Arabic side of things, which gets plenty of airplay in Cyprus:
And then of course the Arabic side of things, which gets plenty of airplay in Cyprus:
The singer on these clips is Abdul Halim Hafez, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever male singers ever across the Arab world. He was Egyptian, and his songs became so popular that arenas and stadiums could not handle the crowds. Halim later began to perform in deserts and outdoor arenas, some of which attracted up to 100,000 people. He was admired and respected across the Arab world and beyond. More than 150 million people watched simultaneously on TV when Halim performed live concerts. He never released an album in his life, being purely a live singer. He died in 1977 at the age of 48. His funeral in Cairo was attended by millions of people - more than any funeral in Middle Eastern history. The entire Middle East was in total stand still with sadness and shock when they heard of his death, and many thousands of people wore black clothing for more than a year to honour him.
Sarah is slowly learning to tolerate my growing interest in Arabic, Turkish and Greek music, but there are limits to every relationship........
And just one more clip below (nothing to do with Cyprus), but rather because it's from my favourite film. Everything Angus has learned about Arabic dancing comes from this film:
thanks for the halim clip. what an amazing talent and died at such a young age. sounds like to me that cyprus is the crossroad of lots of different types of music. cheers, graham
ReplyDeleteRoss, I'm just a little concerned about how your musical tastes may be influenced so I have emailed you the chords to a great song. We'll have to Skype soon!
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