IRSS CAIRO AUG 2012
IRSS CAIRO AUG 2012
Yasmine Hamdan - Khalas http://www.yasminehamdan.com
http://fb.com/yasminehamdanofficial
By Nadim Asfar, Yasmine Hamdan
Editing By Manu Marmier
Song, Lyrics by: Ziad Rahbani (1985)
Music Cover by: Marc Collin / Yasmine Hamdan produced by Marc Collin (2012)
http://www.kwaidanrecords.net/artists/yasmine-hamdan
Yasmine Hamdan - Kwaidan Records ♩ SoundCloud
· http://bit.ly/soundcloud-yasmine
Follow us @YasHamdan · http://twitter.com/Kwaidan_records
· http://twitter.com/yashamdan
Well, she performed many songs in different Arabic accents, remixes Mohamed Abdel Wahab ( Great Egyptian Musician) with Mohamed Adawia (Pop Egyptian Singer from 60’s) along with belly dancer’s song from the 80’s all this mix in companion with Indian Sitar and small xylophone once you lay your eye on her , you can easily recognize (morphologically) a skinny mix of Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Shakira & J-lo, especially tight latex/leather drop waist pants and the 2 obvious inches from tummy skin, crazy hair and glossy make-up all over her boney pale face.
Her audience was so excited, since this is the first time she performs in Egypt, the audience was the most diversity, from out-of-control teenagers “give me a French kiss, Yasmine”, “would you marry me, Yasmine ?” to 50’s and 60’s years old intellectuals e.g journalists and film makers ( Director Youssry Nasallah was among the audience) all was swinging , some of them was seeing her literally : (drooling hot) especially when she sings “Aziza” and say “La Madarshy” (No,I can’t)
Music was different for sure, even if you can’t recognize certain fingerprint, Indian drummer dressed in all red, and her Hispanic girlfriend (member of the band) she plays Guitar, drum, xylophone and share Yasmine vocal sometimes.
Photo album of Yasmine Hamdan Concert
Finally, it was successful fest, the organizing was great , Al Mawred Al Thaqafy (cultural source organization) (Basma El Houssiny) ,and El Genina Theater Mangement (Ashraf Kenawy), It should be noted that Theater was always full, all tickets were sold outs days before most concerts .
Yasmine Hamdan performing "Beirut" live in support of CocoRosie at the Royal Festival Hall, London on August 4th, 2012 (Antony Hegarty's Meltdown).
Yasmine Hamdan performed in the Geneina Theatre in Al Azhar park Friday 10 August to a large and enthusiastic audience.
After a thrilling taxi ride through Old Cairo and a beguiling walk through Al Azhar park, I arrived at the delightful outdoor auditorium of the Geneina Theatre for a concert by Yasmine Hamdan. As a steadily growing line of keen young photographers sat cross-legged right in front of the stage like good boys in school assembly, the venue gradually filled up. The audience was young and smartly dressed and when I asked the man next to me if he is a fan, and he said “yes, for me Yasmine’s voice is the best. I have all her albums.” I was not very familiar with Hamdan’s work, but songs like ‘Aranis Aranis’ and ‘Aziza’ have kept popping up around me in the past few months and every time I heard them I liked them more.
Percussion, bass and acoustic guitar, keyboards, and drums were all set up before Yasmine Hamdan appeared, arms wide in greeting. Opening with ‘In Kan Faoudi’, Hamdan’s voice was strong without being overpowering. Dressed in a shirt with a spangly gold bikini top and what looked like leather trousers, I was pleasantly surprised by her dancing, which at points verged on being bawdy, not the delicate femininity I had expected.
As the set went on Hamdan combined her dramatic arm movements with a lot of smiles and fun, inviting the crowd to join in, which they did, enthusiastically. Percussion was enhanced with atabla halfway through, and another high point of instrumentation was the ‘hang’ combined with a melodica for the intro to ‘Suleima’. Western and Eastern instruments combined to great effect and were complemented by Hamdan’s frequent interchange of two microphones and extra vocal reverb. At the end of the gig I was no longer wondering how to classify her music – it sat comfortably in the sphere of intelligent, inventive collaborative artistic pop.
After the gig Hamdan was nice enough to sit down with The Daily News Egypt and shared her love of performing: “I love melancholy music, but I also know how to have fun. And I was brought up on pop kitsch and old songs. The Egyptians are a very different audience to play to – they know how to have fun too. We used to come on holiday to Cairo when I was a child. I have been trying to infiltrate the Anglo-Saxon world but it is difficult.”
When asked what the difficulties are, Hamdan explained, “the music industry works with a format. They expect you to be world music, and each time I have a CD out they do not know where to put me. So we try to change things a little bit. And it is not the same experience with an occidental public. They are more reserved and I cannot let go in the same way if I cannot dance.” She went on without prompting, “When I first started making music I was listening to Portishead, Bjork, Fiona Apple, Nina Simone, Chet Baker, Janis Joplin, Radiohead and Leonard Cohen.” And, after a small pause, “Jefferson Airplane.”
Having experienced and enjoyed the concert without understanding the lyrics prompted the question if there is a point where language stops being important to her as a musician. “Of course! You do not need language for music. Language is meaningless to me. Look at the Cocteau Twins – they wrote whole songs with no language at all.”
Commenting on her new solo status Hamdan said, “this is the first time I feel that I have matured. I know my desires better and can control my emotions better on stage. I initiated this whole project, I worked with the producer.” When asked if she considers herself a solo artist she explained, “you let your collaborations lead you. I know what I do not like. It is very important to be in control, there were too many important things involved before but now it is me who is driving things.”
During the performance last Friday that certainly showed.
Yasmine Hamdan performed in the Geneina Theatre in Al Azhar park Friday 10 August to a large and enthusiastic audience.
After a thrilling taxi ride through Old Cairo and a beguiling walk through Al Azhar park, I arrived at the delightful outdoor auditorium of the Geneina Theatre for a concert by Yasmine Hamdan. As a steadily growing line of keen young photographers sat cross-legged right in front of the stage like good boys in school assembly, the venue gradually filled up. The audience was young and smartly dressed and when I asked the man next to me if he is a fan, and he said “yes, for me Yasmine’s voice is the best. I have all her albums.” I was not very familiar with Hamdan’s work, but songs like ‘Aranis Aranis’ and ‘Aziza’ have kept popping up around me in the past few months and every time I heard them I liked them more.
Percussion, bass and acoustic guitar, keyboards, and drums were all set up before Yasmine Hamdan appeared, arms wide in greeting. Opening with ‘In Kan Faoudi’, Hamdan’s voice was strong without being overpowering. Dressed in a shirt with a spangly gold bikini top and what looked like leather trousers, I was pleasantly surprised by her dancing, which at points verged on being bawdy, not the delicate femininity I had expected.
As the set went on Hamdan combined her dramatic arm movements with a lot of smiles and fun, inviting the crowd to join in, which they did, enthusiastically. Percussion was enhanced with atabla halfway through, and another high point of instrumentation was the ‘hang’ combined with a melodica for the intro to ‘Suleima’. Western and Eastern instruments combined to great effect and were complemented by Hamdan’s frequent interchange of two microphones and extra vocal reverb. At the end of the gig I was no longer wondering how to classify her music – it sat comfortably in the sphere of intelligent, inventive collaborative artistic pop.
After the gig Hamdan was nice enough to sit down with The Daily News Egypt and shared her love of performing: “I love melancholy music, but I also know how to have fun. And I was brought up on pop kitsch and old songs. The Egyptians are a very different audience to play to – they know how to have fun too. We used to come on holiday to Cairo when I was a child. I have been trying to infiltrate the Anglo-Saxon world but it is difficult.”
When asked what the difficulties are, Hamdan explained, “the music industry works with a format. They expect you to be world music, and each time I have a CD out they do not know where to put me. So we try to change things a little bit. And it is not the same experience with an occidental public. They are more reserved and I cannot let go in the same way if I cannot dance.” She went on without prompting, “When I first started making music I was listening to Portishead, Bjork, Fiona Apple, Nina Simone, Chet Baker, Janis Joplin, Radiohead and Leonard Cohen.” And, after a small pause, “Jefferson Airplane.”
Having experienced and enjoyed the concert without understanding the lyrics prompted the question if there is a point where language stops being important to her as a musician. “Of course! You do not need language for music. Language is meaningless to me. Look at the Cocteau Twins – they wrote whole songs with no language at all.”
Commenting on her new solo status Hamdan said, “this is the first time I feel that I have matured. I know my desires better and can control my emotions better on stage. I initiated this whole project, I worked with the producer.” When asked if she considers herself a solo artist she explained, “you let your collaborations lead you. I know what I do not like. It is very important to be in control, there were too many important things involved before but now it is me who is driving things.”
During the performance last Friday that certainly showed.
16 videos courtesy Mohamed El Shahed
Yasmine Hamdan www.yasminehamdan.com
· fb.com/yasminehamdanofficial
Music: Marc Collin / Yasmine Hamdan produced by Marc Collin
· www.kwaidanrecords.net/artists/yasmine-hamdan
Le nouvel album de Yasmine Hamdan (Kwaidan Records) à télécharger sur Qobuz.
Photo Jean-Baptiste Millo
Yasmine Hamdan - Samar · http://www.yasminehamdan.com
Lyrics: Yasmine Hamdan · http://fb.com/yasminehamdanofficial
Music: Marc Collin / Yasmine Hamdan produced by Marc Collin
· http://www.kwaidanrecords.net/artists/yasmine-hamdan
Special thanks: Nadim Asfar - Satellite my love Production, Alain Dib, Harvey B. Brown, Mamali Shafah, Rafic Majzoub.
BEIRUT momo at the souks
yasminehamdan.com
twitter.com/yashamdan
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kwaidanrecords.net/artists/yasmine-hamdan
Find more about RosEY Chan 陳小莉 @RoseyChan
Pianist, Composer and curator : roseychan.com
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