Monday, October 02, 2006

Yara – voice of an angel from Lebanon

Due to the deteriorating music scene in the Arab world, where everyone wants to sing so they can become rich and famous I did not pay attention to the album when I received it some months ago. The album in question is called “Twasa Fiei” (be tender with me), and it is by a female singer from Lebanon called Yara. It is her first album, and as many newspapers, magazines and media channels said: it is Yara’s ladder to stardom. I regret very much I did not listen to the album earlier, and preferred to remain listening to music from my big collection, until that moment when I was looking for pieces of music background for a home DVD I was working on. Since then I was hooked up with the music of Yara.

“Finally, I found the perfect female voice that can REALLY SING Arabic music” That was my first reaction after hearing Yara’s album “Twasa Fiei”. I listened to the album once, twice and three times… and I still love the album.

The big bang came when Yara sang with the big Lebanese singer, Fadl Shaker, the song “Akhedny Ma3ak” (Take me with you). With this song, Yara’s voice was extraordinary beautiful, very emotional: her voice from the first word in the lyrics, her singing is like some cold breeze in a summer time refreshing the listener soul. To be fully fair, both singers were great, they were like telling us about their trip of eternal love and romance. The video clip of the song supported the lyrics and the melody by filming in a sort of paradise sort of place. It is like Adem and Eve in paradise, singing for each other, excellent choice. No wonder rumors about a relationship between the two singers were spreading in the media.

Maybe no one is used to the fact having a complete package of a great love or romantic song in one!

The main factor in distinguishing Yara from many of today’s female singers is her pure voice and the way words are coming out from her voice. Yara managed to lend a different taste, a different flavor, fitted perfectly with the atmosphere on every single song. On “Bala Eshk” (one of my favorites on the album), Yara was someone who didn’t care about love, did not want love – as the title means. To the contrary, in “Hub Kbier” (big love), her voice on that ballad was showing how someone can be desperate for love and can be full of emotions and ready to give that big love. Yara did not stop there; she proved that she can also do an amazing and wonderful performance in traditional Arabic music. “Lama tetalaa” (When you look at me) is a great example of this excellent signer. That song just remind me of classic Arabic tunes where a person listen to music and not only dance on it. But the illustration of excellence did not halt there, having Yara’s voice doubled in harmony on “Ayam” (days) was sort of haunting and very clever thing to do considering the atmosphere the song was providing. I am not going to talk about “Twasa Feie” (be tender with me) simply because it is the passport that took Yara to the heart of her fans all around the Arab world. However, Yara’s voice in “Alf Zaiak” (thousand people like you) showed powerful element to her voice with the way she deals with the Arabic scales. From the beginning of the song when she starts with “ya leel….” she gives us an illustration on how the Arabic maqam should be sung with the perfect intro to that that perfect song. By the way, the song is also featured in “twasa Feie” video clip, but by the girls preceding Yara into the singing contest, very smart and funny idea!

One thing worth mentioning is the mixing of that album. All involved did an outstanding job in mixing and producing this album. To name a few: the keyboard playing in the background of “Alf Zaiak” just gave another dimension to the song, especially towards the end of the chorus singing. Another example is “Bala Eshk”, the rhythm section of that song is just amazing, especially with the part “mali, w ana mali…”, you cannot have better than this.

Songs of the album are:
Bala Eshk بلا عشق
Law Bsalli لو بصلّي
Wana Janbak وانا جنبك
Hub Kbier حب كبير
Lama tetalaa لما تطلّع
Twasa Fiei توصّى فيّ
Nassitni Zamani نسيتني زمان
Alf Zaiak الف زيّك
Ayam ايام

7 comments:

A. Damluji said...

the voice. indeed..
a throwback to old times.. closer to Feiruz than anyone else today (xcept for feiruz herself!)
i have a friend, whom like i told you, worships yara, and have actually met her once when he was in lebanon (hence the worshipfulness)
keeps bugging me to listen to توصى فيي وبعيني and tho i dont do current arabic music (thanx to 3ajram, Ruby, Wahbi and co.) i do acknowledge art when i see it. and this girl is something.

i know she (or anyone for that matter) don't need ME to tell them they are good.. but.. dammit her voice is cool.

comment dragging on ALERT.

oh oh.. most liked songs on "a Matter.."?
Pilgrim
Brighter than a thou...AW HELL.
you are right, it all rocks. period.

MixMax said...

I won't agree more about your taste and your desire not to listen to modern Arabic music, hence the first lines of my preview, but a good voice can be indeed heard and recognized easily. توصى فيي وبعيني consider it as one of the less songs on that album. You know the strength of that album is in its variety of styles where Yara proved her ability.
By the way, I discovered recently that she sings in one of the Ramadan episodes title songs. It is a Kuwaiti series, I think, on MBC, where they also show her singing.

Back to Metal: Maiden are on tour now, and I saw the live version of "benjamin Breeg" on YouTube. It is a 3 minute filmed by one of the audience, I think.
I still can say which song is the best, today I find "the Legacy", yesterday it was "1000 sons", three days ago it was "colors don't run" (God what a solo in the middle of the song, unblievable)

MixMax said...

by the way, I want to apologize from friends who posted their comments here. I can see that more comments were posted about the topic, but for some reason when I try to publish them they are not displayed on the main comments page!

A. Damluji said...

the beginning of "the pilgrim".. :')

MixMax said...

the middle part of "brighter than a thousand suns" .... God!! what are those guys made of? nuclear reactors?? By the way, this song remind me so much of "Infinite Dreams"

dafplayer said...

Yes indeed she is one of the best female singers.I'm glad that there is still people that appreciate real music and talents.
I love yara

MixMax said...

Hi dafplayer, thanks for visiting my blog and I share with you admiration for Yara and her talent.