Here is a picture of my friends and the poster of Houssein, (he looks very jolly doesn't he?) The poster says "To my loving fans in Salalah" (Sorry the picture is a little blurry, I didn't have it on night setting)
For the non-Arabic music lovers out there, I can give you a little background information. Houssein Al-Jasmi is an Emirati man who is beloved for his ballads...he plays with something of a concert orchestra behind him, and doesn't move at all on stage, but everyone knows and loves his songs, so they definitely aren't there for the visual show so much as a chance to see him live and sing along....
Of course, as any concert in this region is somewhat of an adventure, this one was definitely so.
He was supposed to sing around 9pm...he finally came at 1am after 3 hours of opening acts...
We didn't leave until 3am!
So here are some pictures...(with witty commentary of course)
This is me and my roomie Chris and her bf Eric waiting outside the stadium (we waited for a very long time so there was plenty of time for pictures)Here's a picture of the famous man himself: (Yes, the whole background was techno-discotecque style -- with swirls of technocolor all night long)
So one of the reasons Al-Jasmi is so famous in Morocco is because he did an album of songs in each of the Arabic dialects, (uncommon) and his song in Maghrebi dialect (it was Algerian, not Moroccan, but they are very similar) was called Waqt Dalali, and our whole group the whole night was yelling out "Maghrebi" or "Wat Dalali" to try to get him to sing that one...but he never did :(
In other exciting news though, he did sing one of my other favorites (ok Ok, I admit the only other song I really know) which is "Bahabik wa Heshtini, wa nti noor 3yni...bhabik mout" which obviously doesn't sound very romantic in transcribed English, especially since I can just hear Alayna saying mutt instead of moot....but he's actually saying "I love you and I missed you, you are the light of my eyes, I'll love you until I die"
This of course takes me back to Morocco...when this was Simo's favorite song and his cell phone ring too, it would ring off the hook daily, or would be blasting from his car...or Simo would spontaneously break into song yelling at me ...Bhabik wa Hashtini....(always directing his singing to me of course...ahh the memories! hehe)
So...on to social commentary.
One thing that fascinated me happened at the concert. One of our student teachers Yaarob, who is just such a sweet, welcoming guy, Omanis really are incredibly generous people...who helped organize the trip and what not, started dancing.
(Dancing here means standing up, bouncing a little, sticking your arms out in odd positions and acting like you are riding a camel -- I am not making this up or exaggerating at all, the traditional dances all originate from the ways of desert life, so the camel ride is really one of the most traditional and respected dances) In other words, dancing is in NO way scandalous, or even active compared to dancing in the US. Nonetheless, dancing in public is still seen as a bit risque for anyone. So Yaaroub actually complained that he was hot from the dancing, then pointed to the scarf he was using to cover his face and said it was because he was wearing his scarf...I asked him, "Oh, is covering your face part of the traditional dancing ritual" and he said, "No, its because I don't want to be recognized. He said that its really a small world in Salalah, and since he comes from a good family and wants to work in the Ministry when he grows up, so he can't be seen doing anything like dancing in public...especially with girls! (We were in family seating, so that girls and guys could sit together, otherwise we would have had to be separated which would have been terrible because all our Omani friends were guys)
So, Yaaroub said that as soon as he leaves he will get about 8 texts all saying...we know you were at the concert (again not the best place for upstanding youth to be). But the real problem is not the people who are there, but the fact that the concert was being broadcast live... and he really didn't want to be recognized by TV cameras.
Also, our friend Salah who was joking with him kept saying Yaaroub do X or Y for me or else I'm going to yell your whole name out in the crowd (this is like the greatest fear...to have his whole name/family name/tribe name) yelled out, because then everyone would know exactly who he was and that he was there...
Here is a picture...you can see him in the brown dishdasha with his face covered by the black and white kuma.
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