Angham - Wahdaniya

The number of Arabian singers that I listen to, and I mean ACTUALLY listen to, is rather limited. My Arabic playlist consists mainly of music by: Om Kolthoum, Abd al Haleem Hafez, Mohammed Abd Al Wehab, Angham, Asalah and Amr Diab. Other Arabian singers are people I listen to to pass time...English music, as rich as it is, cannot (by any means) surpass the oriental beauty of an Om Kolthoum classic like, say, Al Atlal or Roba'eyat Al Khayyam. Angham's voice has attracted my attention recently (though she has been singing for quite a long time) and frankly, I think she is among the few who sing with 'feeling' on the Arabic music scene today.

Having the 'feeling' (or in Arabic احســاس) is essential to be a successful Arabic performer. There is simply no other way you can reach and touch an Arab except through their heart and, as the large number of singers in the Arab world today would show, the fastest way to do so is to make some good and passionate music. To be a passionate musician is something that very few Arabic musicians can master especially because most of them sing lyrics and music that they did not write or compose and so their task is much tougher than the Western or English musician who writes his own music. So the Arabic musician will have to feel the lyrics and the music before actually singing them unlike the Western or English musician who naturally feels them being the writer of his own lyrics and composer of his own music.

So enough of my blabbing. Here is a very very special Angham song called Wahdaniya (Lonesome) that became a 'signature song' for her ever since it was released as the titular song in her 1999 album. The song features Arabic lyrics that I frankly don't get some of...The dialect is strange to me (perhaps a dialect of Upper Egypt but I can't be too sure). More importantly, however, it features a brilliant and catchy beat that blends the Western speed with brilliant oriental sound to give a taste of music that only someone like Angham could possibly sing. Check it out here and lyrics here.