It’s Arab Idol!
The “American Idol” brand has spawned countless spin-offs in the USA as well as abroad. The Arab world too has embraced the singing-contest format, both with “Star Academy” (which also exists in France) as well as a full-on copycat of it’s American predecessor, entitled—you guessed it—Arab Idol.
Arab Idol even visually resembles it’s American counterpart. The contestants sing on a round stage awash in blue lights, with an audience watching them as well as the panel of judges. There are three judges, older singer Ahlam (with the requisite collagen lip implants), a dashing older man (Ragheb Alama, a music producer) with wavy hair and Hassan El Shafei, younger man who appeared to be sporting a bit of a faux-mohawk. Unlike original American Idol Hosts Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, the judges keep their commentary short and sweet—and sweet, it appears, indeed: they don’t appear to put-down the contestants with callous and crude words, which is a relief. (Note: this writer only ever saw a brief glimpse of American Idol; for some reason, I never got into it, but I know enough about the dramatic antics of the judges to know that they probably only said what they said for shock value).
After every commercial break, the affable host with the light brown hair, definite salon-tan and nice blue eyes reminded viewers to log onto facebook.com/arabidol to either cast their votes or for more information. Along the bottom of the screen was the rolling list of numbers to text for your favorite contestant: Asiacell (for Iraq); Orange (a network also used in France), Zain (popular in Bahrain, I believe), Etisalat (covers Egypt), Oman mobile and many others.
The contestants were varied, but entirely male! The show, which is relatively new, includes male and female competitors; I think they preform on different episodes. They gave short performances, but to my ear, they sounded no different than the Arabic artists I listen to on my ipod; in other words, these were actual, genuine singers, not like the contestants on American Idol who were most likely selected for their personal lives and shock value than actual talent. (OK, so Carrie Underwood is an admittedly decent singer, and she has had great success; Kelly Clarkson, although I wouldn’t say has the most amazing voice, certainly had more feminist, thought-provoking songs; but don’t get me started on the other winners of the show). The Arab Idol contestants didn’t stand there on stage bawling, or crying because the opportunity “was just so amazing;” they accepted their critique with a smile, graciously, and it was on to the next one.
There was 30’s-age man named Mahmoud who wore an interestingly-patterned turban and robe who sung a traditional song; a young man named Youssef who also sang a very traditional song (although apparently with some background vocals, as when he stopped the song kept going) who was an apparent crowd favorite; a young Saudi or Gulf man (he wore a red-and-white checkered headscarf) who smiled lot but whose performance was a little dull (which the judges did appear to remark on); a cute boy named Hassan who was either from Tunisia or who sung a traditional Tunisian song (the audience was in love with him, and he lapped up the attention, blowing kisses) as well as several others who attempted to rock the stage.
Arab Idol was interesting primarily because I’d never watched an Idol, but there was something sorely lacking: the drama of elimination! At the end of the show, all the contestants came on stage and their names were read, but I’m not sure if they eliminated anyone! What’s up with that? Do they only eliminate people on certain shows, or did they announce the name but didn’t make a big deal of it, so as to lessen the blow to the loser? Either way, it makes me feel as though us Americans are bloodthirsty for winners and losers!
S-L-M
Celebrating My Birthday in Egypt-Jan. 20
I have decided to keep a sort of diary about my life in Cairo, where I will be spending the next month. For the sake of letting my subscribers know that I have posted something new, I will add these diary postings to my normal post list, but you can also find them in the page entitled “The Cairo Diary.” It’s kind of nice to do a more informal musing on Arab culture. 
Holidays are meant to be fun. They are meant to be times of joy, when people get together to eat, drink, remember and celebrate with their family and friends. For me, holidays do not have a high success rate; the expectations and hype, I feel, are too high, and I have spent many a holiday for this or that reason in tears. So the idea of spending holidays abroad–and thus away from the people who celebrate the holiday–appeals to me.
To date, I have celebrated most major holidays abroad. I spent Halloween in France (I did nothing) as well as Thanksgiving in France (I probably feasted on my glorious ham-and-cheese baguette, which in my opinion is a far better Thanksgiving feast than turkey and stuffing and cranberry sauce). I spent Christmas Eve in the Fiumicino Leonardo Da Vinci airport and then in a hotel room at the Satellite Hotel outside Rome, eating a disgusting pasta dinner (the mineral water, the only thing to drink besides wine which I didn’t want, was awful) thanks to severe rain, and then Christmas Day trying not to fall asleep in Paris’ Charles De Gaulle Airport, with nothing but Pringles and a Pepsi and an endless game of Solitaire. I spent Memorial Day (don’t remember) and the Fourth of July in Cairo, the latter sitting in an American school in sweltering hot heat, where no one seemed to realize that it was July 4th despite being an “American” school.
This was all in 2011. Most recently, I spent New Years Eve/Day in Barcelona, Spain, with my twin sister and university friends as I recently reported. And now I can report that I have spent my birthday abroad here in Cairo, the first birthday I celebrated without my twin (!) or my cousin, who also shares the same day.
Although it was strange to celebrate my birthday without them, it was the first time I really celebrated it as “my day,” which I will never view it as. I spent the day fuming in our flat because there was no internet (again!), then went over with my husband to his parent’s flat where his family, including his older sister and her adorable children, had prepared a small celebration. They lit the chocolate and creme cake twice (as I requested; it’s a tradition in my family) and sang “Happy Birthday” to me, first in English and then in Arabic. We also had a plain cake which his mother had made, which was delicious. I played with the children and declared that I was turning 5 years old, not 23.
Afterward, my husband and I walked around Cairo’s huge CityStars Mall (5+ levels and more awing than any Long Island mall) with his friend before returning home. We were supposed to go to the Cairo Tower yesterday for dinner, but as of yet this hasn’t materialized. Despite the lack of an “excitement” factor, I had a very lovely birthday with his family and hope that this year continues on it’s upward trend. Our visa interview is coming up in two days, and if I don’t get on here before then, please wish us luck!
S-L-M
