Review Part 2

The second part of Ashraf Abdul-Menim's review of the last album is out now. Check it out [Arabic].

New Video, New Concerts Dates

According to Rotana TV news show "Akher Al-Akhbar", Amr Diab has finished shooting "Wahashteeni" form Leily Nahary album in Italy and the director is Cameron Casey.

They also announced new dates for the summer concerts:

01/8/2004: Tripoli, Lebanon.
06/8/2004: Carthage, Tunisia.
20/8/2004: Marina, Egypt.

Blocked

I'm sorry to announce that the whole BlogSpot domain, including my blog, is blocked by KASCT the government body responsible for Internet filtering in Saudi Arabia. Please help me to unblock it by filling this form, or send your emails to abuse@isu.net.sa or webmaster@isu.net.sa.

I will keep updating the blog, even though I can't read it.

RAM*: Ousad Einy

What a classical Arabic love story!
The story that millions of Arab boys and girls are living everyday. Tow lovers are separated without their well by traditions or parents or other things and people who have nothing to do with love.

The time goes by, and neither of them can get over it or forget all about it. They can't stop thinking; "It's just like she/he is everywhere!"
What a petty!

*What the hell is RAM?

I'm Sorry

I apologize to all non-Arab readers who followed some of the links on this blog that were directing to Arabic pages. I'm sorry if I wasted your time and effort.

From now on, I will denote any link directs you to unreadable pages for you. I wish I could translate the material for you, but this is not possible to me. You can use Ajeeb for translation, but I can't grantee its accuracy.

RAM*: Back to Basics

From the first times I listened to Leily Nahary album, I got this nostalgic feeling. The feeling of the early times of Amr, especially the times he worked with the Libyan artist Hameed Al-Sha'eri (good for ya Hameed Lover!).

Many melodies remind me with the past. The music style brings back the old good times of the late 80s and the early 90s. This may sound weird because I wasn't born until 1984 but I used to listen and like music from that period.

However, I was disappointed when the new album released and I could not find Hameed's name on the cover of the CD. Before the album released there was plenty of news about a reunion between Amr and Hameed in a song called "Rehit El-Habaib." I even read an interview for Hameed where he confirmed that. When the album released, the song was there but Hameed wasn't!

What happened?! Anyone got anything about this?

*What the hell is RAM?

Concert Update

According to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Amr Diab will perform a concert during the Tripoli Festivals, Lebanon on 31/7/2004.
For more info, please call +961433589/06.

Review

Al-Ahram newspaper has published the first part of a review for the latest album written by a music critic called Ashraf Abdul-Menaim.

The critic made a point about giving most of the songs to one arranger. I'm definitely with him on this point. I think some remarkable works by the likes of Tareq Madkour, Fahd and Hani Yakoub should have be considered before deciding to let all your work in the hands of a start-up like Nader Hamdi.

I'm not saying that Hamdi's work was bad. He got his ups and downs, just like anybody else, but there is one thing for sure: he has little experience to work with a legend like Amr, and he could be just overwhelmed to do so.

More and More TV!

I've watched Ruby's interview on Mazzika TV tonight.
One comment: WHAT A CRAP!
If you missed it tonight, miss it tomorrow at 16:00 GMT.
Not recommended, even for Ruby fans.

Easier Said than Done

No one really knows the whole truth about the Amr-Beyonce-duet thing. Different rumors from different sources have been around for some time but nothing confirmed until now.
 
Some people say as long as he did not release the duet in the new album, there's no duet at all. Others are hoping to hear a surprise later this year with no particular expectations.
 
For me, the most realistic scenario would go this way:
Before the end of this year (maybe on Xmas), Amr will release a new mix of his song "Illa Heya" featuring Beyonce as a single and he may shot a video-clip for it.
 What makes me hopeful about this thing is that there are different reliable sources such as MBC-FM and Nogoom FM has confirmed it. I really hope that this thing work as the previous duets for Amr (with Khaled and Angela Demitrio) could not take Amr to the international charts.

Amr and Elissa: Just Friends

I wrote several times about the Lebanese singer Elissa, but I never heard any rumors about an affair between Amr Diab and her. Anyway, she denied that.

More TV

I was surprised when I heard Amr's "Tesna Wahda" on Dream II TV. It was surprising because the pictures were not for Amr. The pictures were for the Egyptian footballer Husam Hasan [do I need to mention his brother Ibrahim? 'cause it seems like the Hasan brothers come in one package!].

I don't know what Egyptians think about the Hasan brothers, but what I think is they are talking much more that they can actually play.

The Truth, The Whole...

Feras, the moderator at ADW forums wrote the bottom line about the unreleased track "Ya Nasi Wa'adak", or at least that's what I think.

Conspiracy Theory or TRY TO VOTE MORE!

The fans were surprised/upset that Amr's Leily Nahary could not reach further that the fourth place at Rotana Top 20 chart. Some people talked about a "conspiracy theory", which is easy to say because we can't watch the new VC enough. At least not much as we see Wael Kefoury!

Unreleased Track

The fans were busy this week with an unreleased track named "Ya Nasi Wa'adak." It is said that this track was excluded from Allem Albi album. The song is nice but compared to the rest of the album, it's not that good. I read that the track was released by Alam ElPhan, which has other unreleased tracks for Amr, to affect the sales of the new album. How pathetic!
 
The song is available in HQ sound from different sources but unfortunately I lost the link to it. If I got it, I'll inform you.Anyone got it? Help please!

Amateurs and Plastic. Need a Doctor?

Amateurs, plastic and doctors; what do they have in common? Nothing but some TV shows.
Since I had nothing to do tonight, I've decided to stay home and watch some TV.
 
I was in the living room when I heard one of my favorite songs coming from the next room. I went there to watch Husam Madania from Superstar [the Arabic version of PopIdol] singing my very favorite "Sa'aban Alia". His Egyptian mate Raneem Ketait sang "Te'dar Tetkalim" but, you know that already, they were nothing compared to Amr. I hate it when amateurs ruin my favorite music.
 
The gust of the show was Sherine Abdu-Wahab, who looked like she had some work done. I think everyone could notice some new stuff over her chest ;) Good for her fiancé!
 
On Rotana TV, there was Yuri Mrakadi. I don't like that guy, but I don't hate him. Anyway, Dr. Hala Sarhan was hosting him on her Hala Show and I don't know about you guys but this man really has something to say. He is different. He is all by himself. He is just himself even if he looked like Clark Gable, or said: "if I were Omar El-Sherif, would you love me more?"

Making-of Needs Some Make-up

What Rotana considered as a making-of Amr Diab's new clip was nothing comparing to the making-of's we know. It was just a cameraman hanging around with his camera on the shooting sit and nothing else.

No interviews, no information, no nothing! I was waiting to find out where the shooting was and when did they start and how long it took... but nothing, nothing at all!

Finally, I thought the director was a male but form the making-of I concluded [nobody told me, I concluded this myself] was a female. It's an innocent mistake. I'm sorry.

[The making-of will be repeated for the last time on Rotana TV today at 12 noon.]

VOTE NOW!

This week, Amr's newest hit "Leily Nahary" enters the Rotana Top 20 chart. Now, it's our mission to boost it from a new entery to the No.1 spot. The challenge will be to make this move in one week. Can we do it? I think we can, if we just worked hard enough.

All you have to do is to send an email to top20@rotana.net with Amr Diab name in the subject or the body of the message.
After it occupies the No.1 spot, we'll have another mission to make it remain on top by keeping on voting every week. We want to keep it there on top as long as possible!

To make life easier for you, I will put here a sample which you can copy it and use it to vote:

To: top20@rotana.net

Subject: Vote for Amr Diab

Message:
Hey Nadine,

I want to vote for Amr Diab - Leily Nahary.
Thank you.

Your name,
Your country

Summer Concerts

Here's some info about Amr Diab concerts for this summer:

01/08/04: LG concert at Damascus Sheraton, Syria.
06/08/04: Carthage Festival concert, Tunisia.
20/08/04: Marina beach concert, Egypt.

And there was Pepsi concsert which has been delayed to unknown date.
That's all for now. If there's any updates, I'll let you know.

Random Access Memory

I've told you before that I'm not gonna post any review about the new album until I finish listening to it carefully.. but then I got a thought.

Why to post one review at one time? This kind of review may be unfair to the album because it depends on my feelings and my mood at that moment. Then, I may find out that wasn't right.

So, I've decided to post my thoughts about the album and about the every indivisual song every time I got one. These thoughts will come under one general title: Random Access Memory or RAM.

Take a Look

The ADW website has provided us with some pictures from the new CD and the new VC. Here's a picture of the CD cover:

Post-Googling

I've told that I'm going to google the director of the new Amr's video-clip in order to tell you more info about him. In fact, I could not find much about him except his videography which reveals a lot of big names.

Cameron Casey, who has co-founded a production company called Kree8, has directed a big number of VCs for the likes of Boyz II Men, Boyzone, Five, Westlife, Billi Piper, Mel C, Shaggy, Jessica Simpson and Missy E.

One of his latest works was with the famous British band Blue. He's directed their last album's head title "Signed, sealed, delivered I'm yours" feat. Stevie Wonder and Angie Stone. This VC was released early this year before he directed the new VC for Amr Diab.

Keep Watching

I could not get my album until 19:37 GMT last night, so I'm not going to write much about the new album till I listen to it again and again and...
But before I got the album, I've watched the video-clip when Rotana TV put it for the first time during the request program "Shebaik Lebbaik." It was some kind of surprise to me because I wasn't expecting to watch the VC before one or two weeks. What a beautiful surprise!

The VC is directed by the British director Cameron Casey, who directed a lot of famous VCs since the early 90s. I will try to google him to get more information about him. Keep watching the VC [and the blog!].

Make-Off Needs Some Make-up

What Rotana considered as a making-of Amr Diab's new clip was nothing comparing to the making-of's we know. It was just a cameraman hanging around with his camera on the shooting sit and nothing else.

No interviews, no information, no nothing! I was waiting to find out where the shooting was and when did they start and how long it took... but nothing, nothing at all!

Finally, I thought the director was a male but form the making-of I concluded [nobody told me, I concluded this myself] was a female. It's an innocent mistake. I'm sorry.

[The making-of will be repeated for the last time on Rotana TV today at 12 noon.]

Ads Can't Make Hits

While Sherine Wagdy's new album ad was poping-up in my face on every music and non-music channel, Amr Diab's new album ad was rarely seen on Rotana TV only. Why does Rotana make this difference in the ad campaigns between the albums? Is Sherine Wagdy more important to Rotana than Amr Diab? I really can't understand it.

It wasn't only on TV. Sherine Wagdy's ads were available all the time through radio stations, newspapers, magazines and on the streets. I don't know if Amr is just lazy to do an ad campaign for himself, but I know that Rotana is blamed for not promoting Amr in the proper way.

I've heard that Sherine's ad campaign were made by her wealthy husband, but this is no excuse for Rotana, as we've seen Rotana making some miracles to promote other artists. I know that ads are not everything, so let's just wait and see who is gonna make the smash hit of this summer.

No More Waiting, It's Here Now!

Amr Diab new album "Leily Nahary" hits the shelves this morning.
Get your CD or K7 now from a store near you.

How Many? How Good?

Some of the fans are reported to be sad that the new album will contain only ten tracks while they were hoping to listen to 12 or even 14 tracks. The quastion is: Does the number matter? Maybe, but I think the number is not the best thing to worry about.

The important thing is the quality. For me, it's fine with me to listen to ten original unique beautiful tracks. You know, the number TEN isn't so little!
I guess what makes this number thing such a big deal for some people is that they know for sure that Amr has worked on more songs but then decided to exclude them.

Tomorrow is the big day and I'm sure that we will read a big number of irrational quick reviews by the fans. All I'm trying to say is: Take your time guys, listen carefully and then think twice before you post any kind of review.
Finally, remeber that no matter how many tracks are there, it's quality which matters not quantity.

Tracks List

The good people at AD.info has published the supposed tracks list of the new album, but I prefer to wait until tomorrow to confirm everything. Here's the list anyway:

01- Leeli Nahari ( Khaled Taj Eldeen/ Mohamed Yehia/ Nader Hamdi)
02- Wahashteeni (Ayman Bahgat Qamar/ Amr Mustafa/Nader Hamdi)
03- Ensa Wa7da (Bahaa ElDin Mohamed/Amr Diab/Nader Hamdi)
04- Khad Albi (Samir Sarhan/Amr Tantawy/Nader Hamdi)
05- Yedo Elbab (Bahaa ElDin Mohamed/Mohamed Yehia/Nader Hamdi)
06- Dayman Fi Bali (K.Muneer/Mohamed Rehayem/Nader Hamdi)
07- Khaleena Neshofak (Nader Abdullah/Moahmed Yehia/Tarek Tawkol)
08- Osad 3yono (not confirmed yet)
09-Wala Leya Ela Heya (Magdy ElNagar/Amr Mustafa/Nader Hamdi)
10-Ree7et El7bayeb ( Nader Abdullah/ Mohamed Yehia/Nader Hamdi)

By Ahmad Salah and Abbas © 2004 amrdiab.info. All rights reserved.

The Lyrics Thing

There was a little argument in the Diabology forum about the lyrics of the new songs when a member wrote the lyrics depending on the 5 songs sample. That member wrote the incomplete lyrics with some mistakes. Here, I will give you the full lyrics of "Leily Nahary" and "Dayman Fi Bali".

[Leily Nahary]
ليلي نهاري
تعال حبيبي
لا ملامة
حبيبي خدني ليك
ليلي نهاري
تعال حبيبي
قلبي ياما
حبيبي خاف عليك

يا ريت أنا
أشوفك أصادي
يا ريت هواك
دا كان حب عادي
X2
جنبك حياتي
دي أجمل حياة

ليلي نهاري
تعال حبيبي
لا ملامة
حبيبي خدني ليك
ليلي نهاري
تعال حبيبي
قلبي ياما
حبيبي خاف عليك
X2

أحكيلك إيه
خلاص ما انت شايف
من غير ما أقول
أكيد انت عارف
كلام كتير
أنا نفسي أقوله
كلام كتير
يا ريتك تقوله
جنبك حياتي
دي أجمل حياة

ليلي نهاري
تعال حبيبي
لا ملامة
حبيبي خدني ليك
ليلي نهاري
تعال حبيبي
قلبي ياما
حبيبي خاف عليك
X3

-------------------

[Dayman Fi Bali]
هو اللي عيونه نادوني
من العالم كله خدوني
ما أعرفش ازاي شغلوني
أنا إيه اللي جرالي

أنا بعد ما خدني جمالك
وتغير حالي وحالك
أنا لسه ما جيتش في بالك
طب اثبتها لي

ودايما والله في بالي
ايا غايب عن عيني ليالي
دايما والله في بالي
ولا ليلة بانساك
دايما والله في بالي
ايا غايب عن عيني ليالي
ويلي من الشوق يا غالي
ايا ويلي في هواك
X2

هو منور دنيايا
ومصحي الشوق جوايا
ده حبيبي قمر في سمايا
باستنى معاده
أنا شفت كتير بكفاية
اما انت لوحدك آية
قمر انما ايه دي حكاية
ما كانتش في بالي

ودايما والله في بالي
ايا غايب عن عيني ليالي
دايما والله في بالي
ولا ليلة بانساك
دايما والله في بالي
ايا غايب عن عيني ليالي
ويلي من الشوق يا غالي
ايا ويلي في هواك
X2

أنا بعد ما خدني جمالك
وتغير حالي وحالك
أنا لسه ما جيتش في بالك
طب اثبتها لي

ودايما والله في بالي
ايا غايب عن عيني ليالي
دايما والله في بالي
ولا ليلة بانساك
دايما والله في بالي
ايا غايب عن عيني ليالي
ويلي من الشوق يا غالي
ايا ويلي في هواك
X2

Beyonce?

Two members of AD.ca forums wrote that Amr Diab had recorded a due with the American hot singer Beyonce. The first member source is Kalam El-Nass Magazine, while the other said that he listened to the news from MBC-FM which called it "Exclusive." MBC-FM is really close to the production company Rotana and this could be true.
I hope this is true, as it's going to be the hottest news of this summer!

With[out] My Love

Usually, when a singer belongs to Rotana release a new album, he/she appears on a weekly show on Rotana TV called "Maa Hobi"[With My Love] where the Lebanese presenter Jumana Abu-Eid host him/her to talk about the new album and sing some of its songs.

Sorry guys, that's not the case for Amr. You all know that Amr hates all this interviews thing, so he refused to be a guest on the show. Melody Hits website said the reason is that Amr is "busy recoding his new album" but this not true as we know that Amr has finished recoding the album and he is ready to release it this week.

I hope that we could see Amr in a press conference after releasing the album as he always refuse to show up on TV program's. I don't really remember the last time I saw him talking on TV. Maybe about a year ago when he signed the contract with Rotana? Correct me if I am wrong!

Diabology: Welcome Back!

The Diabology website is online again after it has been crashed down two days ago. The reason of suspension according to the site is the huge demand for the full version of Amr's new hit "Leli Nahary". The site will direct you to download it from AD.info, which I tried few minutes ago but it is not possible until now as the "Right Click is not allowed!" and the left click gave me "The page cannot be displayed"!
I'm really disappointed!

Diabology: offline

The Diabology website is not available now because what it seems like a problem with the hosting company. I hope the guys at Diabology can fix this problem soon as the new album is going to be out next week and so many fans are depending on the site to get the latest news.
It seems also that the guys at ADW are facing some problems with the forums, because I'm trying to browse them right now but I'm not able to do so.

Now on the ADW Homepage

I just want to thank Mohammed Tantawi, the webmaster at ADW for adding this blog to the Amr Diab Webring on ADW homepage.
It's a big honor for me to see my name on the homepage of the most important site for Amr Diab. What can I say! It's really your big world for Amr Diab.