Thread: Where to download this song?

OK, steel yourselves, people, but I want a copy of the dreaded Arabic "Happy birthday to you". A friend has it, but I don't want to exploit other people's music all the time and it seems to me I should be able to purchase the track as a download. Where and how can I do this?

It's on the Wings of Isis #2 cd. It should be for sale on pekorecords.com Not sure about downloading it.

Download is preferable due to the exchange rate and the fact I would like to have it in a fortnight...

Hah! I actually love this song. It's by Walid Toufic. On Walid Toufic Top Hits CD he has 3 versions in French, Arabic and English. Even my none dance friends like the English version better than our more traditional HB song.

The song is Inzal ya gameel. The English version is track 5.

Not sure where to download it.

nogomi.com has that Walid Tougic version - actually many versions.

Also check emusic.com for the Wings of Isis cd.

There are two "Happy Birthday" songs that I have heard.

The one to which Jewels is referring is the regular Happy Birthday song, sung in Arabic and in English. It's about 2 min. long and can be found on "Magic Belly Dance" by the Salatin El Tarab Orchestra. The same version is also on "Bellydance Party" (the 2nd Wings of Isis CD). Links for Amazon and iTunes are here: Bellydancedownloads.com - Bellydance Party

Norma and Jasani are referring to, as Norma said, "Inzal Ya Gameel" by Walid Toufic. It's 4 min, is not the regular b-day song (Arabic lyrics actually don't have much to do with a birthday, from what I understand, but the English says "Happy Birthday to you" over and over.) Shira.com has a page with the lyrics. It's on several albums - track 9 of "Now That's What I Call Arabia 9", track 17 of "Club Arabia Volume 4" (both available from Bellydance.com, which is operated by Hollywood Music Center), track 1 of Walid Toufic's "Arwa' Al Aghani - Top Hits", and track 3 of his album "Rah Habibi". There may be more, but this is what I've found when searching on Maqam.com, which has great sound samples. I have not yet found this version available for download on Amazon, eMusic, or iTunes.

I forgot about the other birthday song. I'm probably killing the Arabic but it goes something like: Sawah helwa ya gameel, sawah helwa ya gameel, sahaw helwa ya habibi, sawah helwa ya gameel? They sang that a lot in the clubs for birthdays as well as the Waleed Toufic song.

I was going to say thank you, but it turns out Amazon won't let me buy downloads because I'm not in the US! It wouldn't let me buy some DVDs for the same reason recently, supposedly because shipping three DVDs would be too risky and they might break. I used to buy a lot from Amazon.

Well, if they don't *want* my 60 cents in the dollar...

I haven't tried Itunes yet but have a feeling Itunes tracks only play on Itunes/Ipod type deals. Is that right?

Originally Posted by zumarrad

I haven't tried Itunes yet but have a feeling Itunes tracks only play on Itunes/Ipod type deals. Is that right?

Sort of.

What you can do to make the file an mp3 is to burn the song to a CD using iTunes, and then rip the CD back onto your computer. I don't have an iPod, just a cheapo mp3 player, and I buy a lot of music from iTunes. It's a little bit of a pain to go through the burning/ripping rigamarole, but not too bad.

Originally Posted by norma

I forgot about the other birthday song. I'm probably killing the Arabic but it goes something like: Sawah helwa ya gameel, sawah helwa ya gameel, sahaw helwa ya habibi, sawah helwa ya gameel? They sang that a lot in the clubs for birthdays as well as the Waleed Toufic song.

It's "Sana helwa ya gameel, sana helwa ya gameel, sana helwa ya habibi, sana helwa ya gameel". "Sana helwa" literally means "year beautiful" which translates to "(have a) beautiful year".

You can also download Prisim and or Wave software for free that helps you convert Wav's etc top MP3s

Apparently we just can't buy almost any downloads. They are only available in the US.

Fortunately my friend is giving me the track! Thanks anyway...

Originally Posted by leylalanty

It's "Sana helwa ya gameel, sana helwa ya gameel, sana helwa ya habibi, sana helwa ya gameel". "Sana helwa" literally means "year beautiful" which translates to "(have a) beautiful year".

Thanks! I was close considering I haven't heard it sung since I quit the clubs in 2002. But I sure heard it a lot back in the day.