ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, 5 July 2003 — A dazzling new breed of Lebanese female pop singers are riding to stardom on a wave of videos played on satellite television, unseating the Egyptians who once dominated the Arab music scene, critics say.
Look, for example, at how organizers promoted a summer night amateur music festival in the palm-filled gardens of Montaza Palace along the Mediterranean shores of Egypt’s second city of Alexandria.
Instead of more traditional Egyptian or other Arab artists, they invited Lebanese pop stars Nancy Ajram and Haifa Wahbi.
These women — known for low bustlines, catchy tunes and lyrics about love — performed on Wednesday and Friday night last week in the slots designed to make the biggest ticket sales.
“The festival’s promotion is based on inviting singers who have had a big success with the Egyptian public,” Egyptian organizer Samir Sabri told AFP.
Music critic Amgad Mustafa attributed the fame of these women to the new phenomenon of burgeoning Arab satellite television.
Giving Ajram and Wahbi center stage on the main show nights “guaranteed (the festival’s) success because they have both won over the public with videos broadcast on all the Arab satellite channels,” Mustafa said.
Mustafa, a critic for Egypt’s Al-Wafd newspaper, said music video stars “succeed mainly because of their physical performance.”
Traditional Arab male or female heavyweights, like the late Umm Kalthoum of Egypt or Fairuz of Lebanon, are not known for their body movements as they traditionally perform while standing rigidly before the microphone.
In the early part of the 20th century and for hundreds of years before that, singers in the Arab world performed seated.
Had the festival been organized only a few years ago, Mustafa said, organizers would have invited men like Ali Hajjar, Mohammed Al-Helu, Mohammed Munir or Samira Saeed for the main crowd draw.
Saeed is a Moroccan while the other three are Egyptian.
Hajjar adapts popular Egyptian poetry for many of his songs, touching not only on the ever-present theme of love, but also political frustrations, poverty and misery.
The modern breed, particularly the female vocalists from Lebanon, are decidedly more physical, and Egyptian journalist Samira Mazahi pointed out the paradox of Ajram’s and Wahbi’s success in a society as conservative as Egypt’s.
“I was immediately struck by the contradiction between the many veiled women in the audience, and these singers who perform more with their bodies than with their voices,” Mazahi said.
Though Ajram says she gives priority to her lyrics and her voice, she acknowledged that “the language of the body” was important to her career.
“I want to feel my femininity and beauty in the spectators’ eyes,” Ajram said.
Renowned Lebanese musician Elias Rahbani for his part complained that too many young Arab singers with little talent have been gaining fame in the Arab world through satellite television.
He urged music producers to “take pity on the public” and stop this wave, which he said was undermining art. “The new style of music has nothing to do with art and good taste. Producers should stop ruining Arab tastes and thought,” he said.