Also this past year, the Gisma Group from northern Sudan appeared on a collaborative album in New Zealand, Haja.
The group play traditional wedding music in the style aghani al-banat, "girls' music", which is also associated with Alsarah from Alsarah & the Nubatones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSF7QrzoiD0
On the album, the Gisma Group are centre-stage on the tracks "Haja" and "Like the Moon". More of Gisma's songs are remixed into the other tracks featuring NZ musicians, in a kind of fusion. I like how it's turned out, though something about the remixing seems a bit 'off', not sure what...
- https://nzmusician.co.nz/lessons/x-factory-in-praise-of-the-adults-haja/-
― sbahnhof, Sunday, 13 January 2019 06:42 (five years ago) link
btw there's almost certainly an aghani al-banat rabbithole to go down. The group's leader, Gisma, studied under Hawa al-Tagtaga, who had a role in Sudanese history via her music.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qWzoTh1nv2o/mqdefault.jpg
"Born around 1924 in northern Kordofan, Hawa moved to the capital at the tender age of 14 years to begin the career of a popular performer and entertainer. Over the years, she became an icon of Sudanese womanhood and popular culture. Hawa made the Sudanese happy. She immortalized the key figures of the Sudanese anti-colonial movement in the simple ‘open access’ lyrics and tunes of the nas (common people), and earned a living from the dual function of dance instructor and singer at the weddings of the effendiya and the merchant class."- http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article44931 (Archived)
But I can't find any of her early music online (only songs on low-budget TV shows)
― sbahnhof, Sunday, 13 January 2019 06:43 (five years ago) link
In Sudan, filmed before the overthrow of the government there - a film about the community music program "Yalla Khartoum":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXLSrIncytU
The 2019 uprising that removed al-Bashir was not the first such protest movement in Sudan, and music has often played an important role in these historic events.
Mohamed A Satti writes about a few famous songs, including Mohammed Wardi's “October Al Akhdar” (Green October) in 1964:
Songs of freedom: the soundtracks of political change in Sudan- https://theconversation.com/songs-of-freedom-the-soundtracks-of-political-change-in-sudan-115383
A 2019 song by Alsarah:
Alsarah & The Nubatones - "Men Ana" (Live on KEXP)- https://youtu.be/fBAc8LNCrJs
'"Men Ana / من انا" or "Who Am I" is a new track by Alsarah & the Nubatones.Alsarah says: "The revolution in Sudan has inspired a revolution inside of me. From my heart in the diaspora to all my people on the ground sitting in for weeks now outside the military headquarters in Khartoum and all around the rest of Sudan - I love you."'
― sbahnhof, Sunday, 22 December 2019 08:51 (four years ago) link
That opening mournful flute is really touching in the beginning of first video clip
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 22 December 2019 19:29 (four years ago) link
"Please stop comparing Nadeh El Shazly female singers to Bjork."― Doran, Sunday, December 24, 2017 2:23 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink
How about Leila Arab, then? I know I'm late to the party, but Ahwar is a knockout.
― Deflatormouse, Friday, 7 February 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
How one song got an entire music genre banned in Egypt- https://www.aljazeera.com/podcasts/thetake/2020/03/song-entire-music-genre-banned-egypt-200327190236398.html
Sadly, it wasn't "Shape of You":
"Egypt's low-tech, high-energy mahraganat music blasted out of the shantytowns to top the global charts on SoundCloud and rack up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. But one slip-up at a massive concert in Cairo threw the entire genre's future into question.
"In this episode, we hear from Mina Girgis, an Egyptian ethnomusicologist based in the United States."– (Al Jazeera, 28 Mar 2020)
― sbahnhof, Sunday, 5 April 2020 22:53 (four years ago) link
As mentioned in that podcast
WARNING: may contain references to the illegal and delicious hashish
Hassan Shakosh feat. Omar Kamal - "Bent El Geran" (The neighbour's girl)مهرجان بنت الجيران " بهوايا انتي قاعده معايا " حسن شاكوش و عمر كمال - توزيع اسلام ساسوhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHBaHQau8b4
― sbahnhof, Sunday, 5 April 2020 22:54 (four years ago) link
I need to listen to that podcast. Thanks for posting
― curmudgeon, Monday, 6 April 2020 03:58 (four years ago) link