Download Habibi Nour El Ain
Simone Alwang
About Habibi Festival
Created with the goal of giving a snapshot of contemporary and traditional Musics of the Southwest Asia North Africa (SWANA) region, Habibi Festival aims to take listeners on a journey of the sounds wafting through the airwaves and living rooms of cities spanning Marrakech to Baghdad. This new performing arts festival is a collaboration between the Director of Joe's Pub at the Public Theater Alex Knowlton, artist/composer/curator Yacine Boulares, and curator/producer Meera Dugal who are bonded by the goal of creating more joyful spaces for performance, conversation, and storytelling from this part of the world. Learn more at www.habibi-festival.com.
People may recognize this up-tempo piece as the 'falafel song,' and indeed this is how I became acquainted with it. It is a ubiquitous part of the soundtrack on the stereos that always play in Middle Eastern food establishments, and any aficionado of that cuisine will have its catchy strains running through his or her head whether they recognize it or not. The music features an upbeat rhythm on synthy Middle Eastern drums and melodic Levantine string loops, along with a bass accompaniment. It has that distinctive 'world beat' feel.After years of hearing this song, I wanted to find out what it meant. The lyrics in Arabic (transliterated, of course) are:Habibi ya nour el-ain
Ya sakin khayali
A'ashek bakali sneen wala ghayrak bibali
Habibi, Habibi, Habibi ya nour el-ain
Habibi, Habibi, Habibi ya nour el-ain
Ya sakin khayaliAgmal a'ouyoun filkone ana shiftaha ...
Allah a'alake allah a'la sihraha
A'oyonak maa'aya ...
A'oyonak kifaya ...
Tinawar layali
Habibi, Habibi, Habibi ya nour el-ain
Habibi, Habibi, Habibi ya nour el-ain
Ya sakin khayali
Kalbak nadani wkal bithibini
Allah a'alake allah
Tamentini
Maa'ak elbidaya ...
Wkoul elhikaya ...
Maa'ak lilnihaya
Habibi, Habibi, Habibi ya nour el-ain
Habibi, Habibi, Habibi ya nour el-ain
Aah ... Habibi ... Habibi ... aah