Fairuz & Music

I'm writing this blog and I’m apologising in advance from Abu Fares who have stated before so strongly that he hates Fairuz

Well my dear friend, now, on my weekend in this foreign country, I’m writing this blog while listening to Fairuz in the background and I just discovered that I actually really love her!
I have to admit that my relationship with Fairuz hasn't been going on for long; when I was living in Syria, listening to her in the morning was such a normal part of the day that I didn't even notice it plus the fact that the morning portion of Fairuz was usually early in the day before I wake up!

Then I came to London, and it seems that all expats have to listen to Fairuz all the time, certain songs like Nassam 3alina elhawa (نسم علينا الهوى) are the must for anyone missing home here, and it usually reduced people to tears when listening to it. Well, it didn't have that effect on me! And albeit strong discussions with friends and family, the number one diva for me has always been, and always will be don't miss understand me here, Um Kulthom. Although she's classified as old fashion by the majority of my generation, I’m properly hocked to her voice and her songs...
Back to Fairuz, my relationship with her changed more than a year and a half ago and I have to admit that this change was because of an external influence!

A song is just a song, but when someone tells you what this song mean to them and to you, this combination of words and tunes takes a whole different meaning...
Songs like Ya 7elu sho bkhaf eni dai3ak (يا حلو شو بخاف إني ضيعك) and Ya 2albi la tet3eb Albak (يا قلبي لا تتعب قلبك ) now carry a distinctive meaning and capture a moment in time and a feeling that would otherwise pass unrecorded.
I think that is why some people just can't imagine Arabic music without Fairuz, she has so many of the sweet gentle songs, just what is needed for young affections and tender love whispers to be conveyed in these short melodies to make Fairuz essential for romance in our culture..
I will never dare to claim that I'm an expert of Fairuz, I'm far far from being that and I can still make the people who are, go pale from shock with things that I don't know but for me Fairuz is the voice of a period, of a time, of a memory and for that I will never forget these songs, they are part of me now...

Yesterday, when I started writing this blog, I was listening to a collection of Fairuz songs that belonged to someone so dear to me, that was enough to make me all geared up to talk about her and her music, today, going though the blogs that I follow, I read this blog, the song "Home" is again one that relates to a time and a feeling and now, I’m just listening to the music and a different set of thoughts and emotions is running through my mind...

For the majority of us, music is that, it is the fragments of memories that each song hold, the memory of the feelings that every tunes bring, and for the majority of us, this is what makes us love or hate a song or a singer; few are experts, some are real fans and most are just humans who identify the untouchable with a melody...
Whether it's wanting to come home, wondering how can you live without someone, simply just having a bad day, telling someone what love can do or that one day you'll fly away; a song can usually say it all…

PS: while looking for a picture to put with this post, i run a Google search with the word "Music" and ended up with 957million possible results and 51.3million images!!