Arab troubadour Madfai longs to get back on stage

The Arab world's favorite troubadour Ilham al-Madfai, who last year had to perform in an empty Roman amphitheater and scrub concert dates across Europe and the Gulf, can't wait to get back on stage.

Unveiling his latest work in Amman where he has lived since 1994, the Iraqi star widely known as simply Ilham has tried to break free of the shackles imposed by COVID-19 with a song of hope entitled "After the Absence", taken from a poem by Omar Sari, a young Jordanian.

"After the absence, you must come back, your dream is a cloud, your sadness is a mirage," the 79-year-old veteran performer with the world-weary voice sings, strumming a guitar.

"Come back tenderly, your voice rings in my ears, leave behind the sadness, forget the past," read the lyrics of the song posted this week on YouTube, in which Madfai is accompanied by young Iraqi-Egyptian female vocalist Nadin Al Khalidi, also on guitar.

Ilham was a dashingly-handsome rebel in his younger days, replacing the stringed oud and qanun, the flute and violin with electric guitar, piano, drums and saxophone, to the delight of young Arabs if not musical purists.

That dates back to his time in London in the 1960s where he had been sent to study architecture like his two brothers and their sister.

Later, he blended in the traditional instruments in a fusion of the East and West, an Arab jazz crossover with a flavor of Andalusia, accompanying European songs with Middle Eastern sounds and also vice versa.

"In Arabic, the instrumental intros are endless and the melodies sad," the musician nicknamed "The Baghdad Beatle" told AFP.

"Me, I shortened the opening and chose the instrument which adds an upbeat rhythm and stays in the listener's ear," Madfai explained.

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