The solemnity of her recitation, fluctuating between accusatory and encouraging tones, is probably meant to suggest deep artistic meaning and poetic ambivalence. Unlike what has been touted in the Western media, these verses are not about the waning beauty of the Levant but instead rather pedantically lament the alleged causes of the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. In the breaks between verses, Faia's sister Rihan Younan declaims self-written texts on the subject of war in the Middle East. She is certainly welcome to do so, but many of her peers do it daily much better without reaping laurels in the western media. There can be no other explanation, because otherwise they would have realised that this YouTube video contains absolutely nothing that justifies any sort of public acclaim.įaia Younan, who was mostly an unknown outside of Sweden until a few weeks ago and whose fan base, at least on Facebook, seems to be quite modest, interprets hits by the Lebanese superstar Fairuz. The motives for the West's adulation are surely diverse, but they all have one thing in common: most reporters have apparently been so blinded by the two women's appearance that they neglected to read the text scrolling by in the video. Is it the current situation in the world, the terrible images coming out of the Ukraine and the Middle East that make people around the globe cling with increasing desperation to any sign of hope for future peace? Or is it the two sisters' stunning blue eyes, crystal clear and deep as the proverbial mountain lake? Or perhaps the fact that Arab women perform here with bracing self-confidence and WITHOUT HEADSCARVES, something that people in the West are apparently still unable to imagine? Or the carefully staged aesthetic minimalism of the video? A simple whitewashed brick wall, two stylishly presented young women with carefully draped long hair wafted by a slight gust of wind as they gaze rigidly straight ahead – as well as a look usually associated with perfume commercials intended to connote individuality and modernity? So when influential European media such as Spiegel Online or the BBC report in detail on a single YouTube video by two largely unknown Syrian-Swedish artists, there must be a good reason. Contemporary Arab singers or artists rarely receive any notice in the West.
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