The piercing voice of Fayrouz Karawya drifted over the Nile Tuesday night, in a concert that exhibited the singer's unique style of combining the best elements of Eastern and Western musical traditions. Standing on stage at El-Sawy Culture Wheel, Fayrouz captivated a rapt, albeit eclectic, crowd with a soprano voice that was as pure as it was acute. Backed up by the rest of her band - four men playing, respectively, a piano, an oud, a bass, and various percussion instruments - Fayrouz's songs revolved almost exclusively around the subject of love. But her love songs took on a more tragic and despairing tone than the typical Arabic ballad about a man and a woman falling into a blissful romance. According to her website, Fayrouz's love songs seek to "tackle love conflicts and try to give a multi-dimensional picture of love relationships in the nowadays context. Her target is to find out the essence of love.and deal frankly against an imaginary picture of perfect and romantic love. Indeed, with a creased brow and a melancholy gaze, Fayrouz's expression for much of the concert seemed to mirror some of the themes that she sought to convey through her music. Gesticulating slowly and rhythmically, in time with her sometimes lullaby-like music, Fayrouz seemed to be physically urging her audience to identify with the anguished subjects of her songs. The audience responded well, with rousing applause at the end of each piece and occasional exclamations of approval. It was, however, an unusual crowd to find at a modern rock concert - many audience members were middle-aged or older and there were several families in attendance, babies pressed gently against their mothers as Fayrouz's music rocked them to sleep. One audience member, Lennart Widell, who had never heard Fayrouz sing before, said after the concert that he had greatly enjoyed her performance. "She sang very well and has an amazingly beautiful voice, he told Daily News Egypt. "I also liked the musicians, especially the drums. They were able to produce a number of different and unique sounds. Fayrouz Karawya says that this diversity of sound is part of what makes her music distinct. She describes her music as "a hybrid that combines an authentic oriental flavor with a modern progressive musical style. Her desire to synthesize the best of Western and Eastern musical traditions has motivated her band to "capitalize on various instruments, oriental and western, to enrich the musical experience.and to develop a formula that suits a global listener. At every break the singer would pause to recognize both the lyricist and musical composer of the song she had just finished. It became quickly apparent from these accreditations that the sources of her art are as diverse and eclectic as the styles that she seeks to synthesize. Although she had composed the music to many of her pieces, the lyrics had been written by a number of different poets and song writers, some of whom were present in the audience. The Egyptian singer, who was born in the coastal city of Port Said, did not begin her singing career in earnest until last year. Prior to that, she had dabbled in medicine, psychiatry, theater direction, and screenwriting. Her music, thus far, has been met with general approval, an attitude that pervaded the audience on Tuesday evening. However, there were a few audience members present at the concert who expressed some criticism of the band's performance. Ziad Abou Al-Nasr, another first time listener to Fayrouz, remarked that he didn't feel that there was any real unity between the singer and the musicians that backed her. "I really enjoyed the musicians, he said, "but there was no unified tone, theme, or character to the band. She stands at the front, all dolled up, and the other members sit behind her very casually - sometimes they even chat to each other during the songs. "You could tell they're a new band he continued. "There were pauses in between songs and her stage presence was a bit lacking. They all have talent, but they need to work on the cohesion of their performance. For more information visit www.fayrouzkarawya.com.
