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Τρίτη 8 Ιανουαρίου 2008

Fairouz First Interview in 17 years

Σε bulletin της σελίδας της Fairuz στο Myspace μεταφέρεται στα αγγλικά η συνέντυξη της στο Σταθη Τσαγκαρουσιάνο για τη Lifo που έγινε το καλοκαίρι λίγο πριν τη συναυλία της στην Αθήνα. Όπως αναφέρεται είναι η πρώτη της συναυλία μετά από 17 χρόνια. Παρακάτω παραθέτουμε το bulletin:





Fairouz First Interview in 17 years.


Fairouz's last interview was in 1990 with Al Shabaka magazine.
But now she speaks again in this interview with a Greek newspaper.

Photobucket

Journalist:
Do you miss the old Beirut?

FAIROUZ:
Of course I do, I miss a lot.

Journalist:
What do you miss about it?

FAIROUZ:
The peace, the beauty -in every level-the calmness. Things that you could see everywhere around you but don’t exist anymore. Life was pleasant, happy and full of simple things that you cant determine or explain, because you live them just like your breath. You can only feel some things not describe them.

Journalist:
Why do you think the western elements that you added in Anatolian music were so much appreciated and accepted?

FAIROUZ:
Cause my people are very open to all nations and all civilizations and artistic beauty have many faces, not just one.

Journalist:
What I feel as a Greek is a deep and intense melancholy in your voice-even in your patriotic songs. Is it true or I just don’t understand?

FAIROUZ:
It is true, you are absolutely right.

Journalist:
Why is that?

FAIROUZ:
The pick of happiness is sorrow. Its something I believe deeply and it comes out when I sing. My song doesn’t describe the beauty I was talking about before. The country I loved exists only in my songs; it has nothing to do with the reality I live in.

Journalist:
Is this the reason why you don’t smile often?

FAIRUZ:
And this. Its also cause of the songs, they don’t speak for happy things. Smiling while singing them would be weird.

Journalist:
Is there something that makes you happy today?

FAIRUZ:
The fact that there isn’t war and unjustice in many parts of the world. The mind, in order to think creative, have to live in peace and safety and calmness and to not need to care constantly for such things.

Journalist:
Is there something you would like to change in your country's condition today?

FAIRUZ:
The immigration. If I could, I would stop the immigration.

Journalist:
How do you spend your summers?

FAIRUZ:
Depends on what’s behind every summer. I may have to concert, appear in a festival, or hiding in a shelter.

Journalist:
During summer, you usually sing in BAALBEK. How come you chose that mystic place?

FAIRUZ:
The place chose me, I followed.

Journalist:
The fact you unite and move all the Arab world, does it make you feel responsible?

FAIRUZ:
Of course.

Journalist:
And how do you express that responsibility?

FAIRUZ:
With great fear, to not seem less than what they expect to see. If not do my best then not disappoint them.

Journalist:
In this world, the Arabic, is nationalism a bless or a curse?

FAIRUZ:
Whatever its name may be, nationalism is something important and necessary. Our country is our big home. You accept it as it is.

Journalist:
What did you do during the Israeli bombing of BEIRUT?

FAIRUZ:
The war started the same night that my concert would begin in BAALBEK; the July of 2006.It was canceled. We went back home running, under aircraft invasions, we hide and waited till it ends.

Journalist:
Today that there is no war, what is your greatest fear?

FAIRUZ:
I am worried for my job, my kids, our lives, and our health. I worry for everything.

Journalist:
What do you like the most in a person’s character?

FAIRUZ:
His honesty and his generosity.

Journalist:
What do you know for modern GREECE?

FAIRUZ:
Unfortunately not much. The GREECE I know is the country of ancient history and mythology. I admire a lot Maria Callas. I like her voice and I appreciate her personality. I have her as a synonym of GREECE.I am also moved by the songs of Mikis Theodorakis and Chatzidakis.

Journalist:
Do you know ATHENS?

FAIRUZ:
No, it’s my first time here.

Journalist:
You don’t like to travel?

FAIRUZ:
No.

Journalist:
Isn’t there a journey you want to make?

FAIRUZ:
My best journey is my song, wherever they may take me, no matter where I really am.

Journalist:
If you had to live somewhere outside LEBANON, where would that be?

FAIRUZ:
Jibal al Sawan

Journalist:
How was New York?

FAIRUZ:
New York isn’t waiting to hear what my opinion is about it!

Journalist:
Even if you are traveling in Arabic countries, isn’t there things you like?

FAIRUZ:
Of course there are, I like their generosity and their kindness, those that are the basic characteristics of Middle East. Middle eastern people are very sentimental, that might be their greatest weakness.

Journalist:
Are there any moments you feel tired of all these civil conflicts?

FAIRUZ:
Yes, I am tired

Journalist:
Would you like to withdraw?

FAIRUZ:
How can anyone withdraw from his reality? Wherever you go it follows you.

Journalist:
Are there any international personalities that you admire?

FAIRUZ:
I admire Gandhi. As a human being, his passion for peace, the way he tried to succeed it. His way was unique, doesn’t remind anything of the ugliness of our world.

Journalist:
What gave you the greatest sorrow in your life?

FAIRUZ:
The early loss of my husband, Assi. The void he left in arts, in our family.

Journalist:
Which phrase can summarize the philosophy of your life?

FAIRUZ:
Whatever may happen to you, never give up? There is always a light in the end, close or far, it doesn’t matter.

Journalist:
Do you pray?

FAIRUZ:
I pray all the time.

Journalist:
What do you say in your prayers?

FAIRUZ:
If I tell you what may prayers say, it wont be prayers anymore but news.

Journalist:
What is the pick of your life?

FAIRUZ:
My job. Almost all my life is my job.

Journalist:
But something is bothering you, like you don’t feel complete.

FAIRUZ:
The word completeness doesn’t exist in my life. Fear has covered everything; even those that are meant to give happiness and satisfaction.

Journalist:
And God? In this country (of LEBANON) with the remarkable religious freedom, in which language does your God speak?

FAIRUZ:
My God doesn’t speak, He listens.

Journalist:
Did you ever read something, a phrase that changed your life?

FAIRUZ:
No, life is too complicated to be changed by one phrase.

Journalist:
Wasn’t it ever simple?

FAIRUZ:
Maybe. Sometime

Journalist:
In your first years, you had met Oum Kalthoum and Dalida.What do you remember from those days?

FAIRUZ:
Memories of beautiful days in a happy time. Times that we lived and unfortunately will never come back.

Journalist:
What’s the most valuable thing you still possess?

FAIRUZ:
My voice.

Journalist:
What’s in this voice that people from allover the world love to listen?

FAIRUZ:
I can’t tell you that. You will have to ask those who listen to it.

Journalist:
Is there any English song you sing to when you are alone?

FAIRUZ:
Not one song but many parts of them. Strangers in the Night, Silent Night, I Believe, and I could also add the In The Night (smiles). In general all parts that talk about night.

Journalist:
Why the night?

FAIRUZ:
Night fits a lot.

Journalist:
What would you like Athenians to know tomorrow that they will watch your concert?

FAIRUZ:
Just that I am coming. And I hope they will like my song

Journalist:
When you will be singing you will be watching ACROPOLIS under the moonlight. Does this symbol mean something to you?

FAIRUZ:
ACROPOLIS isn’t something foreign to me, even if I am coming to ATEHNS for the first time. I think it will bring to my mind the feelings of all those great artists who have stood up in this theatre before me, the wealth of Greek culture through ages, the glory and the feeling of awe that fit so many "giants”. The moonlight will be the string that will unite us through time.

Fairouz was the first Arab to preform in the Acropolis. She sang to the Lebanese Troops and returned twice to the stage after her first exit.

8 σχόλια:

Ινδιάννα είπε...

Δεν έχω καμία επαφή με το αντικείμενο! Ξέρω ότι ο Τσαγκαρουσιάνος λατρέυει την Fairouz κι εγώ τον Τσαγκαρουσιάνο (για τις επιλογές του). Αλλά δεν έχω καταλάβει τι είναι αυτό που την κάνει τόσο ξεχωριστή. Έχεις διάθεση να μου εξηγήσεις γιατί σου αρέσει -μπας και τη δω με άλλο μάτι και την προσέξω περισσότερο (πρόσεξε, όχι γιατί όλοι τι θεωρούν θεά, αλλά τι προκαλεί σ' εσένα!); ΥΓ. Στο μεταξύ θα απολαύσω μια σταθερή αξία, όπως η Σιούξι! :)

sot είπε...

Είναι πάρα πολλά.
Είναι ο μοναδικός τρόπος που τραγουδά. Η Fairuz κατάφερε με τη βοήθεια των αδελφών Rahbani κατάφερε να γεφυρώσει δυο τελείως απομακρυσμένους μουσικά κόσμους και παράλληλα να ενώσει με το τραγούδι της το χριστιανικό με το μουσουλμανικό κομμάτι του αραβικού κόσμου. Πέρα από τις συγκυρίες που την έφεραν στο τραγούδι και που σημάδεψαν γενικά τη ζωή της (φαίνεται σαν κάποιο θεϊκο χέρι να οδηγούσε σε όλα όσα έγιναν)η Fairuz έχει μια καταπληκτική ικανότητα να τραγουδά οτιδήποτε και μάλιστα με τελείως ξεχωριστό τρόπο. Αυτό είχε σαν αποτέλεσμα να καταφέρει να μεταφέρει στους άραβες ένα μεγάλο φάσμα δυτικών μουσικών (από κλασσική, τζαζ, ταγκό, μέχρι βαλκανικά ακούσματα. Από την άλλη έκανε προσιτή την αραβική μουσική στις δυτικές χώρες.
Είναι ο τρόπος που συμπαραστάθηκε στους συμπατριώτες της στις κρίσιμες στιγμές.
Είναι ο τρόπος που αντιμετώπισε τα μεγάλα χτυπήματα της μοίρας.
Είναι η όλη παρουσία της που όποιος τη δει από κοντά βλέπει τι σημαίνει πραγματικά ντίβα χωρίς εισαγωγικά.
Είναι η δύναμή της να τα βάλει με μεγαλοσχήμονες πολιτικούς.
Είναι η ταπεινότητα μέσα στη μεγαλοσύνη της.
Είναι τεράστια η επιρροή της στο πως τραγουδούν οι σύγχρονες τραγουδίστριες στις αραβικές χώρες αλλά και γενικότερα στην αραβική μουσική.
Η Oum Kalthοum για πολλούς άραβες θεωρείται ανώτερη σαν τραγουδίστρια αλλά ποτέ δεν κατάφερε να με αγγίξει όπως η Fairuz.
Αποπνέει μια ιδιαίτερη ζεστασιά το τραγούδι της που σπάνια μπορείς να συναντήσεις.

Δεν μπορούσα να αποφύγω να αναφέρω κάποια πράγματα για τα οποία ίσως και οι άλλοι την έχουν τόσο ψηλά, όμως είναι και μένα αυτά που με κάνουν να τη θεωρώ ξεχωριστή.

Τουλάχιστον για τη Siouxsie συμφωνούμε :)

night blue είπε...

Ligo mpagiatiko olo ayto de nomizeis? Ayti ti synenteyxi tin eixa diavasei orun mines kai malista metafrasmeni sta ellinika.

night blue είπε...

prin mines

sot είπε...

Ναι είχε δημοσιευθεί πριν αρκετούς μήνες. Άλλωστε την είχα παρουσιάσει και εδώ. Το νεότερο στοιχείο που δε γνώριζα είναι ότι είναι η πρώτη της συνέντευξη μετά από 17 χρόνια. Το έμαθα μέσα από το bulletin στο Myspace που βγήκε προχθές και θεώρησα ότι θα ήταν καλό να την παρουσιάσω και στα αγγλικά, μιας και ήταν κάτι σπάνιο και πολύ λίγοι θα είχαν την ευκαιρία να δουν το bulletin.

night blue είπε...

Den thymamai an ti diavasa edw i ti vrika kapou sto diadiktio (apo Lifo mallon). Anyway... Mporei na mou eixes steilei kai link. Den enthymoumai.
Wraio to tragoudi an kai paliomoditiko sto Podcast.

Ινδιάννα είπε...

Ωραία! Ευχαριστώ! Τώρα πάω να δω τα παλιά σου κομμάτια γι' αυτήν και να την ακουσώ και στο myspace! Ευχαριστώ για την επιμόρφωση! :)

sot είπε...

V:Ναι είναι όμορφο τραγούδι :)
Είναι στο κλασσικό στυλ των Kamelot.
Σε τέτοια κομμάτια είναι ειδικοί.
Έβαλα και τους στίχους στο σχόλιο του προηγούμενου ποστ.

I: Να σαι καλά. Μπορεί και να τη συμπαθήσεις μέσα από τα τραγούδια της :)

 
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