N°116 AMR DIAB - AMARAIN

Amr Diab (I won’t try to write down his full name since it’s too long and complicated) is an Egyptian singer of a music style called Al-Jeel, a typical Arabic poppy music style. It contains mixtures of Arabian and Western music styles. His popularity led him to four World Music Awards for best selling Asian artist.

His first album Ya Tariq (The Road) saw the light in 1983 but he’d score his first hit in 1988 with the song Majaal, still one of his biggest successes. For his first worldwide hit song he’d have to wait for another thirteen years until the release of the single Habibi (My Darling). This single was remixed uncountable times by many DJ’s and found its way to the shelves of the western music stores. His duets are also quite known in the Arabic. Due to linking reasons I’ve chosen to post the song Amarain which means two moons. In 2004 he scored a number one success in the whole of Asia with his album El Laila (This Night).

Amr also tried an acting career and he shared the white screen with Omar Sharif; less successful though.

You also might wonder why I jump from the USA to Egypt but the link has geographical roots. Since the previous song mentions the Mississippi Delta I’ve looked it up on a few maps and to my big surprise there’s a city named Cairo, originating close near the river. And Cairo is the capital of Egypt so I went on a search for an Egyptian performer and came up with Amr Diab. Simple no?