Thread: What types of music have you found are recieved best by the GP?

Good morning darlings!

I've been looking for music for my troupe's upcoming fair performance, and while looking for "the" song I've started wondering what everyone else feels is the type of music/style that is best received by the GP?

I tend to stick to short and happy but I never quite seem to know if it "worked" for them until afterwards and sometimes I've been totally wrong. For example, I once did a cute pop-style saiidi piece I thought would go over really well that just didn't connect and then another time I used Nova Raks off a Shik Shak Shok CD and the audience LOVED the music (I just picked it b/c it was short and we were on time constraints!). Even some pop music has been very hit-and-miss. My troupe does a choreo to Amber Oriental off the Suzy el Helwa CD Yousry and Nourhan produced and that one almost never fails to get people clapping by the end with the music and yet the Tarkan piece we do just doesn't have people reacting most of the time to the music even though many of them have told us that's one of their favorite pieces to watch.

So, what are the criteria you've used to pick GP music (single songs, not sets) and how successful have you usually felt afterwards regarding audience connection and acceptance of the music? Could you give any suggestions as to specific songs that may have become "standards" for you?

I've had good results with folk music - songs like Shisheler and Istemem Babacim. I like the versions that Omar Faruk Tekbilek has on Gypsy Fire, and I like John Bilezikjian's versions.

I find it can be good to vary the energy level, so a couple of pretty veil work ballads interspersed with the faster songs can be nice. People always seem to react well to Erev Shel Shoshanim (there's a nice version on Gems of the Middle East sold by Mary Ellen Donald).

Thanks Shira! think I might have the Gypsy Fire CD, so I'm going to go check it out and then look up the rest.

I definitely agree with varying tempo and I definitely do that when constructing sets. It's just so much harder when picking a single song for a show! :-p

I have found that the GP will like it as long as it is not to foreign sounding. Usually pop, no wailing mizmar or wailing singer. Also music that has no quarter tones seems to go over better.
Samy Farag and Adam Basma have some good sounding "Americanized" numbers like Gahawher, Fatouma, "I feel like dancing". Spanish Fusion like Allabina works well too.

Other than that a full band sound with lots of drums works very well too.

A very American-ized song that the GP seems to *love* is Shakira's "Ojos Asi" - and they seem to like the Spanish version even better than the English one.

Other than that, pop singers like Nancy and Nawal Al Zoughbi have a bunch of songs that I've had success with. It also helps if I throw one true, classical orchestra piece in with the mix (I am classical Egyptian cabaret style) to slow things down in the middle.

Drum solos!!!

Other than that, it seems to depend on the audience and the dance.

For instance, I find that slow music doesn't get much audience response BUT they don't mind it if you're balancing a sword or fire on your head -- they like it best if sounds very 'mysterious' like something you might hear in a movie about Ali Baba. Hollywood Eastern instead of folkloric (mizmar/rebab) Eastern.

An art fair or musical crowd is more likely to hear the complexity of an orchestral piece and appreciate your interpretation of that complexity.

A younger crowd at an outdoor festival will appreciate something with booming energy that makes them want to clap or bop around (chicky by Oojami *shudder*)

Great and entertaining dancing can help people to enjoy a wider variety of music than they would if they were just listening to it, though. I really believe that.

ETA: Also seems to depend on the circumstances. If they're seated for the performance, they're more likely to relax and let themselves get drawn in to a complex piece of music with layering and emotional interpretation.

If they're standing, walking by, 17 other things competing for their attention at a street festival or mall -- then you're better off with pop music or that 'ali baba' stuff -- and you'd better be showing off some killer isolations, balancing a sword on your head, spinning a chair in your teeth, and have a flaming veil.

Anything that has drums in it. I know at a festival we did in a VERY small town, I was performing to an airy fairy Inta Omri piece and the GP was NOT feeling it at all. I was all ooeey gooey and they wanted up beat, happy hips, bouncing everywhere!!

The GP loves Hakim, I've found. And Shakira.....

We get to do 45 minutes for a wine festival here...and we are being paid like a real band!!! Woohoo!!! So the line up is a lot of mixing for troupe, duets and solos. The slow song for snake is the mosy Americanized of all of them, Mummers Dance by Loreena McKinnett, The most folky is Luxor Beledna and I am using Istamem Babacim with zills So...snake wings sword cane zills and veil...that should keep em away from the wine booth for a little while...I hope. We are going on just as the wine tasting begins. The pay is good...so no matter!!! If I had to do one and only one...and I was the only dance troupe there, go for Hakim!!! Make it as close to gay disco bar as you can find and change troupe formations often in the choreo. Use a BPM of about 110 to 120!!!

Anala - That's similar to what we're doing at the GA Nat'l Fair, although we're not getting paid (yet... still on the "community" stage b/c we have to prove we're just as "family friendly" as the thong-clad performers at the circus who spend more time showing their backside to the audience than their face).

Anyway, the plan is to perform troupe bits and then each member is doing a solo. I'm making everyone pick their songs ahead of time... it just seems as if there are always questions regarding what works and I was curious to see how others resolve the dilemma. :)

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

The GP loves Hakim, I've found.

same here - i love him

For younger arabs Hakim is a good choice, but older arabs mostly like Ahmed Adawiya better..

B

My regular gig is at a downtown Italian restaurant ( the owner used to be a bellydancer so...) and so we are generally talking tourists, families.. GP to the core. I have my set list down to a science... a mix of songs no longer than 5 minutes each and I try to have a pop-ish song, a short and sassy drum solo, a Western song with heavy M.E influences that they might recognise and a short classical piece so that they get their education :) I have noticed that they quit paying attention when authentic suites of classical bellydance music are used, so I don't do that. Save it for the stage shows...