The past couple of days have been unbelievable—most of it in a good way. As usual, I will omit the details about my school week to skip to the “good stuff,” i.e. what I did this past weekend.
Thursday evening was “Algeria Night” at the Jordan Festival, an event I’ve been looking forward to since my arrival in Amman. The Jordan Festival (which used to be called the Jerash Festival) takes place in the ancient Roman ruins of Jerash, a city about an hour north of Amman. It’s an incredible idea—concert and performance-goers watch the various entertainers in the same theatre as the Romans did years ago. This alone should be enough to encourage any visitor to go to at least one show during the summer festival.
As some of you may know, I’ve loved Arabic music of different kinds (traditional, classical, contemporary, you name it) from my first listen. Rai, however, is the genre of Arabic music that really piqued my academic interest in addition to personal enjoyment. Words can’t describe how thrilled I was to discover that not one, but TWO of my favorite artists—Khaled and Faudel, two of the biggest names in rai music—would be performing on the same stage during my stay in Jordan!
The drive to Jerash (via a shuttle bus from Amman) was beautiful—the road winds around hills dotted with trees and smaller towns. Once we got to the ruins, we had to go through several security checks, where our bags were thoroughly searched and we were patted up and down. As one might expect in a predominately Muslim country, men and women went through separate lines and women were searched in tents. The Jordanian army was out in full force, with soldiers stationed all over the hills and ruins. According to one of the ushers, this is the standard level of security at concerts.
We had a bit of time to see the ruins before the concert started, so we took a stroll through the Oval Plaza and down the colonnaded streets. Several little boys offered themselves as tour guides. They were like little walking, talking guide books, and showed us the “moving column” trick, old statues of deer and lions, and the musical columns—for a tip, of course.
We then made our way to the South Theatre, where we made ourselves as comfortable as possible—sadly, no one thought to bring blankets or pillows to sit on. The show was slated to start at 7:30 but began 45 minutes late—the only other concert I’ve been to where I had to wait that long was Kanye West’s (big surprise there)—but the second the music started, there was no question this concert would be worth the delay.
Cheb Khaled, the “King of Rai,” was the first to perform. The moment he walked onstage, audience went crazy and several Algerian flags emerged. One audience member threw a flag onstage, and Khaled wore it on his shoulders as a cape, to everyone’s delight. His performance was PHENOMENAL. The energy in the theatre was amazing—everyone was up on their feet, singing along and dancing with all their hearts.
Biyouna, a female rai singer whose music I’m wasn’t familiar with, was next. Her music was really a mix of different genres: many of the songs had strong Latin and Caribbean influences, and one, about her former French lover, some bonhomme named “Cristophe,” was complete with accordion swells and other Francophone touches. Though her voice wasn’t my favorite, and the blue lights that blinded the audience every 5 seconds made Carla and I don our shades even though it was 10PM, it was still a great performance.
Biyouna was followed by Faudel, the “petit prince de rai,” or, as Carla dubbed him, the “Arab Justin Timberlake.” He, to, had a great performance energy “Tellement n’brick” is one of my all-time favorite rai songs, and seeing it live was nothing short of incredible. He is a much younger singer then his fellow performers, but held is own, working the audience to a fever pitch.
Faudel’s performance was a memorable one for another, unexpected reason: early in his set, the ushers monitoring our section decided to join in our dancing! Talking to them later, we found out that they all were all University of Jordan students who work part time for an ushering/modeling company. Yes, a modeling company…I’m thinking that explains why so many of the guys on UJ’s campus are as stylish as the girls!
We caught the shuttle bus back to Amman and got back around 1:00AM, and went to bed immediately, as Friday would be a very full day. You can look forward to another long entry about the rest of the weekend’s adventures coming soon!
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