Category Archives: Music

5 Reasons Why You Should Go To Ellie Goulding’s Concert in Beirut

Ellie Goulding Lebanon Beirut Biel

Disclaimer: I was provided with concert tickets by MixFM for my personal use; this, however, came after a friend and I had already purchased tickets for the concert, albeit lower-priced ones. 

The “it” concert of the summer, which was almost threatened to be canceled at some point as our security situation degenerated, is Ellie Goulding coming for her Halcyon Days tour. Personal taste in music aside, the concert is to be a summer highlight, with it generally being an oddity for someone who’s actually “in” right now to come to Lebanon for a concert.

The ads promoting the event have been extremely tacky so far, however. Between telling us that Ellie is brave for venturing here and asking us to show the world how Beirut is truly like, I don’t know what’s sadder: the fact that coming to Lebanon is now an achievement in itself or that that rhetoric has become advertising prone or that the entire joie de vivre in Lebanon point of pride is actually still used.

In spite of that, I figured I’d come up with a few reasons why I want to go to Ellie Goulding’s concert.

1) The song “My Blood” is gorgeous, and the acoustic live version is even better than the recorded version.

2) Goulding’s song “I Know You Care” was used as the UK’s Song for Syria in order to raise money to help the children of the war-torn country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHOOIbzSfkQ

3) She covers indie acts often and does a good job at it. Her cover of  Kodaline’s “All I Want” is brilliant, as is her cover of Alt-J’s “Tessellate.”

4) Goulding writes most of her songs and with several hits under her belt, many of which were unexpected given them being an oddity with the sounds popular at radio, she has proven not to be a one hit wonder. Her album, Halcyon, cannot be summarized by “Burn,” but has many great songs on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VsN4_BR3pM

5) She’s a great live performer with a voice that stands out among her peers, as well as an awesome accent to boot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEycXtiivx4

The concert is on Wednesday July 23rd, at Biel.

Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP Gets Censored for the Middle East

Like her or hate her, there’s basically no escaping her especially if you tune in for 10 minutes of local radio. Lady Gaga is gearing up to release her upcoming album which she has titled: ARTPOP. A few weeks ago, she revealed the album’s title to be the following:

ARTPOP

Pretty weird, right? It’s not like you’d expect anything less from her at this point though. However, Middle Eastern countries are getting a different and censored version of this same cover, which was just released and is the following:

BYP0Iz0CQAAE123.jpg-large

They’ve increased the dimension of that ball in front of her, whatever it might mean, to cover her breasts. They’ve also colored her legs black in order to give the impression that she’s covered up.

And yes, Lebanon is one of those countries as is evident by the Lebanese iTunes Store.

I really don’t get this. Did local authorities tell her label they would refuse to sell the album under its previous cover? Or did the label do this out of courtesy? If so, did they really think people wouldn’t simply switch the censored and covered-up cover for the other one in case the decided to purchase the album?

I may not like Lady Gaga and her music but I absolutely hate censorship especially when it’s this absurd and non-sensical. What’s next? Cover her up with a burqa and retitle the album to something regionally-appropriate in order not to irk some people? After all, who knows how they’ll take the “art” in Artpop?

Last time I checked, regardless of whether I agree or not with her methods, she was someone championing for personal liberties and whatnot. Our countries have squashed that right out of the bat – and the album is yet to be released. Perhaps they’ll then censor the track listing as well which contains songs called Sex Dreams and Swine because, as you know, sex and swine are both haram.

I guess the bright side is that this wasn’t banned, not that it would make any difference given that’s available online aplenty.

Farewell Wadih el Safi

We only appreciate our artists after they die.

Wadih el Safi, one of the three remaining giants of Lebanese music, bid this world farewell today at the age of 92. Perhaps it’s easier to mourn the loss of this man, the national symbol that he is. I choose instead to reflect on the life that he has lived, not on the last days of weakness that we tend to remember those who leave us by.

Wadih el Safi, in a career that has spanned almost seven decades, has put a mark on Lebanese music and culture that is tangible and unshakeable even to those, like me, who were not exposed to him growing up. My memories with Wadih el Safi are not those of a typical Lebanese who associates him with rousing patriotism. Whenever I think of him, I think of the songs about family that he would sing, about being a father talking to his son, a father having a discussion with his daughter… I remember how the people around me feel whenever they listen to those songs and how vulnerable he makes them, in the space of a few minutes, with his melody and voice.

They called Mr. el Safi the voice of Lebanon as he sung about this piece of heaven that he called home. It’s a shame that the voice of Lebanon is leaving this country while his piece of heaven is probably anything but. You may be wondering why someone like me, who’s the last person you’d imagine would write about such a thing, is actually doing so. But with Wadih el Safi’s demise, Lebanon has lost a key pillar in the little that remains in the culture that is truly honorable and decent of this country we call home.

Wadih el Safi’s death isn’t just that of a singer that the Lebanese population likes because they feel they must, out of respect. His death takes us one step closer to the full realization of the cultural demise that we are heading to, especially when it comes to music and arts.

Farewell Wadih el Safi, the man who has lived and has done so abundantly.

Lebanese Xriss Jor Wins At Dubai Music Week, Signs Recording Contract With Quincy Jones

Xriss Jor Dubai Music Week

A jury that consisted of Timbaland and Will.i.Am chose Lebanese Xriss Jor as the winner of the talent part at the Dubai Music Festival, following her performance of Listen by Beyonce. As a result, Jor will sign a record deal contract with Sony Music and producer Quincy Jones, who has worked previously with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra. She will get a single and a music video out of this.

Xriss was competing with Emirati singer Hamdan Al Abri, Dubai-based Lebanese band Jay Wud, Lebanese singer DD Fox and Sudanese R&B singer Nile.

I figured her name was familiar so I looked into her some more and it transpired that she was a contestant on The Voice and managed to reach the later stages of the show before being disqualified in the 1/4 finals. Those talent show contestants keep going at it until they hit the jackpot apparently. Another batch will find its way to the spotlight tonight with the relaunching of Star Academy.

This seems to be Xriss Jor’s most popular performance on The Voice:

And this is the version of Listen that I was able to find:

Dubai is all about music these days. Another Lebanese band is participating in another music event taking place there. So make sure you head to Pepsi Band Slam and support Adonis.

Help Out Lebanese Band “Adonis” in Pepsi’s Band Slam

Lebanese band Adonis is participating in a competition held by Pepsi that’s bringing together bands from the region and getting them to compete in order to become the band that would open up Pepsi Night, which will conclude the Dubai Music festival.

Adonis are late for the competition – they’ve already missed one day out of the 4-day competition, because, as I’m sure you have guessed by now, they faced visa issues in traveling to the UAE.

Adonis Lebanese band Pepsi Band Slam

 

In order to vote, go to the following website (link), click on Rate The Band and vote for Adonis.