This years Eurovision Song Contest to be held in May in Moscow - Russia, is going to witness a un-expected move by the Israeli Broadcasting Television. They decided to send an Arabic & Hebrew Duet to the prestigious european song contest.
For that purpose the duet selected was by two female singers: Mira Awad and Noa and their song titled "There must be another way". Both singers have a long history of Peace Advocacy of the Palestinian Israeli Conflict, and the Israeli's decision to send them certainly has a message folded between the lyrics of the song to the world.
Mira Awad - Born in Rameh in 1975 in Galilee - Occupied Palestine, to an Arab father from the Galilee (Anwar), a physician by profession, and a Bulgarian mother (Snejanka) , currently she lives in Tel-Aviv. Awad is currently starring in a play about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Cameri Theater. She became an instant star on Israeli television after appearing in the sit-com "Arab Labor"and "Noah's Ark".
While she has been the butt of criticism on either sides of the Arab-Israeli divide, she has many fans in both camps. The debate has exposed the uneasy position of Israel's Arabs, those Palestinians and their descendants who remained after 1948.
Achinoam Nini or Noa is born in Tel Aviv in 1969 Noa lived in New York City from age 2, but orignally her family is from Yemen.Noa has recorded numerous songs in Italian, French, Spanish, Galician, English, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Hindi, Yemenite Jewish and folk & Arabic pop.
Noa have collaborated frequently with Arab and Palestinian artists from around the world, including Khaled from Algeria, Nabil Salameh from Lebanon, Handallah from Nablus ,Rim Banna from Nazareth, Amal Murkus from Kfar Yasif, and Mira Awad from Kfar Rameh. These collaborations enable the duo to express, musically, their belief in the power of communication and dialogue as a means of promoting peace and understanding.
On November 4, 1995, Noa was on stage performing for an audience of 50,000 at the historic peace rally in Tel-Aviv just minutes before the late Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
In September 2002, she included a duet in her album "Now" with Israeli-Arab singer Mira Awad, a cover version of the Beatles' song We Can Work It Out in an effort to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Will leave you with the song they will sing at the Eurovision Song contest 2009 in Moscow :
Info: Wikipedia
http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/123402
ReplyDeleteحيفا ـــ فراس الخطيب
تنتمي الفلسطينة ميرا عوض، التي ستمثّل الدولة العبريّة في «مهرجان الأغنية الأوروبية»، إلى فئة فنانين يتباهون بأنّهم يرون الصراع الفلسطيني ـــــ الإسرائيلي «من زاوية أخرى»، على رغم أنّهم على دراية تامة بأنّ لهذا الصراع وجهاً واحداً لا غير، فيه الجلاد والضحية والسجن والسجّان.
لكنّ الفنانة المنخرطة منذ زمن في المشهد «الثقافي» التل أبيبي، تصمّم على تجميل الواقع المأساوي بـ«رومانسية الانتهازيين». من هذا المنطلق، تركض لتبرّر قرارها تمثيل إسرائيل بعد العدوان الأخير على غزة إلى جانب الإسرائيلية أحينوعام نيني التي أيّدت الحرب عن سابق إصرار. ماذا يريد الإعلام الإسرائيلي أكثر من فنانة فلسطينية تمثّل الدولة العبرية لتظهر «وجهاً آخر» عجزت عن إظهاره وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية بكل ما أنفقته من ملايين الدولارات على الدعاية؟ وهل هناك مشهد دعائي أجمل من فنانة عربية فلسطينية وأخرى إسرائيلية (تؤيد الحرب وتدّعي اليسارية)، على منصة واحدة، تغنّيان بالعبريّة والعربية والإنكليزية؟ ولسخرية الأقدار أنّ الفنانتين، اللتين ستمثّلان كياناً صار رمزاً للاحتلال والوحشيّة والجرائم الدمويّة، تشاركتا سابقاً في أداء أغنيات شهيرة لفرقة الـ«بيتلز» تندرج ضمن أغنيات الاحتجاج التي اشتهرت في أميركا الستينيات وصارت رمزاً لمناهضة الحرب والدعوة إلى السلام والحرية والعدالة الاجتماعية وحقوق الأقليّات والمهمّشين. حتى أنّ بعض الصحف الغربية عنونت مشاركتهما في «يوروفيجن 2009» تحت عنوان عريض هو «أعط السلام فرصة مع ميرا ونينا» في إشارة إلى أغنية الفرقة البريطانية الشهيرة.
The Eurovision Song contest, is based on diversity... If each country sang in one single language as u suggest - Esperanto, then the different nations will not be able to celebrate their different ethnicity and identity. So i don't think its a good idea to sing in Esperanto language as well as English language. Those who sing in English are just looking to become popular and possibly win the contest... forgetting the actual reason of participating.. which is to represent yourself with pride of ur language heritage culture and music.
ReplyDeleteBut for the specific case above of Israel, bringing up the Arabic language to represent Israel is very misleading.. as it makes the world think that Arabs are living happily in Israel.. and not occupied..which is not the case. So its just a big propaganda against the Palestinian cause rather than just helping it as they claim by singing for peace.