Magnificent Music Pt 2

I’ve just finished compiling my latest playlist for my Tuesday Fusion Dance classes and wanted to share some of the amazing artists we’re dancing to.

First up is a Syrian musician - Omar Soleyman. I first discovered him when I heard his incredible remix of Bjork’s “Crystalline” and have since fallen in love with his crazy high-energy dance party tracks - another fave is Bahdeni Nami. He started his career as a wedding and festival singer where his sets were recorded and distributed at local kiosks. Exiled in 2011 due to the war, he has been living in Turkey and runs a bakery alongside touring the world with his music.

I was at my local hafla a few months ago and heard this track “Ala Warag Il Foul” by Fatme Serhan - it sounded really familiar and was delighted to find I already had it in my collection on the “Beginner’s Guide to Bellydance” CD - love it when that happens! I have so much music in my collection and it’s very satisfying when I find a great track I hadn’t noticed previously on an album I bought ages ago! Here is a link to the lyrics on the amazing resource shira.net. Fatme is a much-loved Egyptian singer - known as “The Queen of Baladi” and the above mentioned song is also on her own album of that name. On travelling down the rabbit-hole to find out more about her I found this video from 1994 with Dina - demonstrating effortless simplicity in her dancing!

Finally I have just discovered this fantastic artist DJ Kaboo and this EP “Arab Trap” - where he remixes classic Arab tracks such as Batwanes Beek (made famous by Warda, an Algerian singer who achieved great success in Egypt) and Sidi Mansour (a Tunisian folk song - check out Shira’s article about it here.)

Have you heard these artists? Let me know what you think in the comments! If you already know them, do you have any favourite tracks I should check out? Or let me have any of your favourite current music recommendations!

Check out my full playlist (and others!) here. 

Where possible I have included Bandcamp links for you to support the artists.