Waseem Sayegh

The following is the video of Toufic Gebran from i-Tech, an Arabic technology program from the Washington DC based satellite channel AlHurra TV, reviewing Shawshara.com.

Khaled, the king of Rai, released his latest album Liberté after five years of silence. The album should have come with the warning label “The King is Dead Long Live the King”. Ever since Khaled’s self titled album he successfully fused traditional Rai beats with pop, hip-hop, reggae and other world beats. This fusion brought Khaled to the international stage with hits such as Didi, Aïcha and Chebba. With every new album Khaled tweaked and tuned his music till it reached its epitome with his 1996 album Sahra. Ever since then while other Arabic musicians were able to keep their music relevant and up to date, Khaled failed to keep his music fresh. It seems that Khaled in his heart of hearts yearned for the more traditional Rai sounds of the early 80s, which meshed traditional Arabic instruments with electrical synthesizers. Liberté is Khaled’s biggest gamble. Liberté ditches the world fusion music that Khaled was known for and goes back to the traditional roots of not only Rai music but Arabic music too.  I personally thought eight minutes long songs with a mawal intro are long dead, but apparently they live on in Liberté.

The bottom line is if you like Khaled for his world music fusion, then “the king is dead”. On the other hand, if you like Khaled for his early 80s music then “long live the king”.

Tracklist:

1. Hiya Ansadou (Intro)
2. Hiya Ansadou
3. Raikoum (Intro)
4. Raikoum
5. Ya Bouya Kirani
6. Gnaoui
7. Zabana
8. Liberté (Intro)
9. Liberté
10. Soghpa
11. Sbari
12. Sidi Rabbi
13. Yamina (Intro)
14. Yamina
15. Pabi Ntya
16. Ya Minoun (Intro)
17. Ya Minoun
18. Km Même Pas Fatigué (Bonus)

Video excerpt:

Shawshara.com is my latest community-based project that brings everything about Arabic music to the Web. Shawshara.com went online on February 28, 2008. Shawshara.com is Wikipedia style project dedicated to Arabic music. With everybody’s help Shawshara.com will become your goto Website for all your Arabic music needs including: artist biography, discography, music videos, lyrics and lyrics translation. As for the name, Shawshara is Arabic for noise or static. We hope that the site will make some noise on the Internet.

Chebba is a song written by Khaled. The song was re-recorded and released in several of Khaled’s studio albums including Kutché and N’ssi N’ssi. Cover versions of the song were recorded under the title “Eshebo” by Alabina and Etti Ankri. The following is my best attempt to write and translate the lyrics of the song. Note, different recordings have subtle differences.

Original Arabic lyrics:

يا شابه يا شابه … يا شابه يا بنت بلادي
يا شابه يا شابه … يا شابه يا بنت دواري
وآي حواجبك مقرونين … عينيك نايمين
وآي و منين تضحك خيتي … و يبان لي الضوء
وآي إلي فيك يكفيك … فيك دعوة الوالدين
وآي ما نزيدش نعشق … راني تعديت ما سبق
وآي حواجبك مقرونين … قالوا ملكمين
وآي المحنه اللي نبغيها … راها باينه
وآي عليك ما قد نصبر … أميره للعمر

Latin Transliteration:

Ya shaba ya shaba … ya shaba ya bint bladi
Ya shaba ya shaba … ya shaba ya bint duwari
Waye hawajbik makrooneen … aineek naymeen
Waye o mneen tidhak khayti … wi ybanli el-daw
Waye eli feek yikfeek … feek da’wat el-waldeen
Waye ma nzidsh na’shak … rani ta’deet ma sbak
Waye hawajbik makroneen … kalo milkmeen
Waye el-mehna eli nibgheeha … raha bayna
Waye a’leek ma kad nusbur … amira lilo’mer

English Translation:

Young girl, young girl … my town’s young girl
Young girl, young girl … my neighborhood’s young girl
Your eyebrows are coupled … your eyes are sleepy
Oh brothers, when she smiles … I see the light
Oh, you have everything … you have your parent’s hopes
Oh, I will not love anymore … [*** not understood ***]
Your eyebrows are coupled … [*** not understood ***]
Oh, that’s the problem that I want … it’s obvious
Oh, I can’t wait anymore … she’s forever a princess

Video: