Thread: How appropiate is it to dance to Nassam Alayna el Hawa for a Lebanese audience?

Haifa Wehbe in Las Vegas "Nassam Alayna el Hawa"

With Lyrics

Fairuz - The Air Breezed Upon Us / Nassam Alayna El Hawa [English Subtitles] - YouTube

IME audiences enjoy many versions of this song in bellydance performance. I've even used a more classical rendition for a sword act in the local Persian club. Went over well. Just make sure you read up on the lyrics to be appropriate ;)

LOL, I'm not sure it is ever appropriate to dance to a live-recorded track of Haifa attempting a classic when there are better voices' versions available, but that probably wasn't what you meant.

It is a sad song, but I'm not aware of any reason why it would be particularly controversial. You never know if you are going to pick a song that someone in the audience has a high sentimental attachment to and they might get teary eyed, but a lot of Lebanese songs are sad in a vaguely patriotic, missing-the-old-days way, and I don't think that is necessarily as a bad thing. Actually, in most circumstances I think audiences would appreciate it, but you do have to be careful not to go too far in any one direction if you have a mixed audience. If you know the crowd is Lebanese, you have a lot more leeway to pick a song about how great Lebanon is than if you know there are a lot of Syrians and Egyptians in the audience (but the same would be true for busting out the Egyptian "Umm al-donya" songs for a Moroccan or Saudi crowd).

No no :P I have the Fairouz version from amazon I guess.

The only Lebanese person will be the owner of the restaurant, but I want to give a good impression. He told us he probably would like to hire us for weekly performances. The event is going to be an aniversary or presentation of a new wine, I am no sure. I just went over the Lebanese songs threads here on bhuz and I found some very happy Lebanese ones. So I have those two options, sad or very happy. I read in those same threads that Lebanese people like happy music, too. So... maybe I should dance to that... mmm...

What do you think?

Use the music you enjoy the most. It's nice to have a little variety in mood if you're doing a set, but pick the music that makes you feel like dancing. IMHO, the first priority is to give a good performance, then worry that it's a Lebanese one second--within reason, of course. I suspect the average Lebanese audience would rather see you knock it out of the park with Abdel Halim than drag yourself through a Fairouz song you didn't like, you know?

OTOH, if I wanted to pick a "distinctively Lebanese" song, I'd personally look for either a famous Lebanese song with vocals by a recognizably famous singer (not an instrumental) or something with a strong dabke flavor (Do you do Lebanese/non-Saidi cane?). Those types of songs are the most likely to be an intentional choice on your part to honor them.

Well, I really like both hehe... I guess I am going to wait to see what the other girls are dancing. :) Than you for you help