My previous post on Ali Bahar was rotten tomatoed by a fellow blogger, which is a pleasant surprise, with me being me not expecting any response from the posts I put up here.
Fans of Ali Bahar like to use the term فيلنق when describing his music which is the Bahrainization of the word ‘Feeling’ maybe the equivalent of ‘emo’ to today’s rock music listeners minus the razors and ‘every rose has a thorn’ mentality.
But what makes his music ‘feeling’?
Lyrics:
The majority of the band’s lyrics are from their lead guitarist Khalid Al-Thawadi, and his style suits Ali very much and a good reflection of his character. The lyrics are extremely simple and from the heart and he sings it in a way that it’s understandable especially for the age range 16-25. The simplicity of his lyrics are frowned upon by many of the Arab world songwriters whose writings are complex flows of words on topics of love and betrayel are as dry and uninventive as the deserts they originate from.
Music:
Although bringing guitars into the foreground, the Brothers did not forget their roots and is evident in many of the songs especially their earlier works البارحة and نامت عيون الناس. Many upcoming bands and singers like Guitara, Miami Band and Hmoud Nasser are greatly influenced and inspired by the Brothers. Their fusion of Fijiri, Reggae, Classic Rock and Latin Jazz is inspiring.
Vocals:
Ali’s voice is instantly recognisable as he sings in a pure Muharraqi dialect, and those who don’t know this dialect imagine how a very spoilt large woman would sound like when talking slowly, and he does it without shame, unlike many other Bahraini singers like Khalid Al-Shaikh, Hind and Adel Mahmood tend to sing in a more ‘Khaleeji dialect’. He also likes to do cover songs for Bob Marley including Stir it up and I Shot the Sheriff. The band also originally wanted to record songs they’ve written in English during the eighties but were unfortunate and did not find a producer to record the songs and release them although some attempts were mildly successfull like this song.
So when mixing these three elements, you will get ‘feeling’ed
I’ll sign off now with another old classic Brothers music vid for a song called اشتبي اكثر What do you want more?! Enjoy!
One of the few talented Bahrainis of our times that is for sure, if any thing should help this Icon is recordation of what he has done for this country in terms of giving us a good musical name, but sadly in Bahrain being a musician is still frowned up on and if any one told their family that they want to join the industry they would be lucky if they don’t get disowned.
This tragedy is the result of the epidemic of erasing music form our schools and demonizing it, we need to treat our musicians like heroes so people like Ali won’t ever suffer, If it was up to me I would give him the highest honor in the country.
Good work Bro
Hello Daddy-o!
Thanks for passing by bro, how are you all doing and how is lil Z??
It’s very sad the state of music in Bahrain, many artists struggle to even record any material and if they manage to pay for the studio for the recording sessions, they can’t pay for the for the master tapes for the mixing and eventual release of the albums!
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Ali Bahar.. The Masterclass in Bahraini Music (2), but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
ALI Bahar is a great singer ..pls let us hear more of him
pleasing singer ..mind blowing artist ..