Last night, we once again conquered fear of another Doha terrorist attack and made our way to the city’s iconic Sheraton Hotel to see Lebanese singer Majida al-Roumi in concert as part of the Doha Cultural Festival. It was exhilarating. We had a blast! Majida gave a top-notch performance that I will personally remember for years to come. She kicked off her concert by praying for the safety of Qatar, something I found very considerate and unexpected.
Her first song was Beirut ma bitmout, or ‘Beirut won’t die.’ She performed it so passionately. It was very touching in light of the political tensions occurring there these last months. The audience — a good portion of whom were Lebanese — clapped and cheered as she sang the lyric calling for the "removal of the foreign hand," which I assumed was a reference to Syrian interference in Lebanon. This is the Middle East, you can never escape politics!
During the two-hour concert, Majida performed a number of masterpieces like Kon Sadeeqi, or ‘Be my friend,’ Kalimat, or ‘Words’ and 3am biesalouni 3aleik el nas, or ‘People are asking me about you.’ [links pull Real Audio feed] I surprised myself by knowing a number of her songs by heart. I guess they were buried there deep down in my subconscious.
Majida looked absolutely stunning and performed so elegantly. I can’t believe she is almost fifty. She just looked amazing.
One interesting thing happened during the concert when a group of people that appeared to be Lebanese left the hall running with mobile phone to ear. I figured something must have happened like an explosion. I was right. As we were enjoying our time listening to Majida’s tantalizing voice, a bomb exploded in yet another Christian area in Lebanon. It is very sad indeed. But I quote Majida: Beirut Ma bitmout or Beirut won’t die.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I had become over-saturated by the continual playing of the songs of Fairuz, another Lebanese diva. Last night I couldn’t help but wonder why Majida had yet to reach the pinnacle that Fairuz occupies in the hearts and minds of her Arab audience. Majida belongs at the same or even a more elevated position than Fairuz.
All in all, we had a great time! I’m still humming the tunes from the concert. I will definitely make sure to add some of Majida’s albums to our humble music collection very soon.
Asmahan rocked. Her untimely death stole a true musical gem from the Arab world. Laylil Uns Fi Vienna was pure heaven. And this is coming from a metalhead!!?!
Charles, thanx for that post. Nice to see someone remembers the glory days = )
Dear Amal , I’d like to say that when Natasha compared Majida el Roumi to Fairuz she internally means that Majida by now is supposed to receive glory and praise equivalent to what Fairuz earned. She’s just stating that Majida is as important despite much differrences with respect to voice and performance (Majida has a soprano level while Fairuz is on Alto). I beleive the International community has already given room for Majida on the list of super-talented artists, she’s the arab Diva who in many objective points of view has an outstanding and an exhilerating operatic voice that we really miss in Arab art after the death of Asmahan and Leila Mourad. Please understand that no one is like Fairuz but not even Fairuz is like Majida el Roumi. While we all appreciate Fairuz works, we have to know that in her times competition was low on the Arab art scene and people where attracted to the sweet voice and lebanese flair of Fairuz. But in more modern times, Majida’s voice and extraordinary performance shook the world and made people fly to a world of peace and love. In addition, world critics stress on the lofty personality of Majida as a part of her total combination while they view Fairuz as a disturbed character. Cheerful presence is so important on stage. And please note that Majida is 100% Lebanese and her Maestro father Halim el Roumi(who gave Fairuz her name)was originally from Tyr and has lived for a while in Palestine like many Lebanese and he came back to Lebanon where they lived in Kfarshima.
Linda,
All Jordanians liked her, not only His Majesty. Majda is a phenomenon in our Arab world that you can hardly match. That does not make other singers less, like Fairouz. But her style of music, lyrics and the way she performs – not to forget the beautiful face and her facial expressions when she sings – all these touch a chord deep inside each of us who live or once had lived in Jordan. I have not been following up on her latest, but for the songs I know she was just terrific.
I guess that Majida is the only artist that I would ever think of attending a concert to her as well as Celine Dion of course, it’s funny though cause I mostly listen to Rock but I can’t resist listening to these two beautiful voices.
hey didnt king hussien like her a lot?
Natasha, I’m going to kill you next time I see u-how can you compare Majida to Fairouz!?! She will never, EVER, EVER reach the calibre of Fairouz. She doesn’t have half of Fairouz’s grace, talent-or symbolism. Fairouz is a Lebanese icon. She represnts Lebanon more than the flag! She symbolises hope for a country that was torn by civil war. You know what Majida symbolises? A Lebanese of Palestinian origin who is ashamed of her roots. Yuck
Perhaps not so surprisingly, I didn’t know I knew Majida, being new to the Arabic music scene. Of course I knew Fairuz but I don’t have the same attachment as others here for reasons fairly obvious. I still could appreciate the Fairuz voice, however.
That said, Majida really knocked me out. She began her performance with Beirut ma bitmout, singing something like “I come from Beirut” and man, it packed a punch that was not lost on anyone listening. It was such a powerful and heartfelt song. I could not understand all the lyrics but the passion brought on by the turmoil of today was palpable.
I did not know a good number of the other songs but found I knew Kalimat quite well. But what knocked me and everyone else out was this operatic voice she kicked out in a number of songs. It bordered on belting but was just far cleaner and perhaps could be described as truly operatic. It was mesmerizing and so powerful. The house was blown away. She’d pull that mic back and unleash.
This and the fact that she sang and sang without a break or even a touch of water left the strong impression that we were in the presence of a tremendous vocalist. It seems in many of her songs she sort of drifts along, lightly, breathily singing; hiding her voice a bit. She’s capable of this vocal power that I don’t hear on these recordings the wife linked to here.
They say it is only in live performance that the true artist shines and she proved that last night. I might have lost focus when I lost contact with her lyric and the language evaded me. But when she stopped, the orchestra stopped and she sang out “Allah” about seven times in an operatic voice it shook everyone there right down to the bone. She was really amazing.
Although i like majida but its not a fair comparison between her and fayrooz. i prefer fayrooz’s voice to majida if i have to choose. i love her songs’ lyrics and her personality…love everything about her. recently i listen to fayrooz almost every morning.
for majida i like kun 9adeeqi and kalimat, i didn’t like her new songs or maybe i didn’t listen to enough songs for her.
I love Majida Il Roomi. She reminds me of my childhood when my dad would only agree to play this cassette that had only Nizar Qabani’s music, so it was strictly Majida, Kathem, and Asala. Majida is very talented, and both her music and her voice are excellent. Kalimat is one of my all time favorite songs.
I love her dress! I’ve never seen Majida look so stunning.. My mental image of her is her early 90’s music with poofy clothes, ruffles, and too much bright red makeup.
But you know, you can’t really compare Majida to Fayrouz.
I think that the fame Fayrouz recieved has to do with an unbelievablly huge amount of music(is it over a 1000?), although we must acknowledge the fact that the Rahbani’s stole most of their music and a lot of Fayrouz’s songs sound the same. She’s a very prolific artist, and its very hard to ignore someone as prolific. Another fact that distinguishes Fayrouz is that she was a milestone in the history of Arabic music. The launch of Arabic pop is widely attributed to Fayrouz, she revolutionized the music scene by popularizing 4 minute songs(sandweecheh as my grandmother still calls them) rather than ones that would last for hours such as Om Kalthoum’s. Yeah, I actually took CLasses about Fayrouz’s importance in Arabic music in my “Introduction to the Arts” course at JU…
I absolutely love Majida’s music and voice. Her classic songs (Kun Sadeeqee, Kalimat, and all the songs on her first album) always take me back to being in the Middle East whenevr I feel like connecting with my roots here in LA. You’re so lucky you got to see her live.