Mashrouʼ Leila is not a bandʼs name. It is not a proper noun per se; Mashrouʼ Leila is Arabic for ʻan overnight projectʼ lusting out a microphone, a violin, a bass, two guitars, drums and keyboards. It started out as a music workshop at the American University of Beirut in 2008, an open platform for students of architecture and design, somewhere to experiment with sounds and make things audible. Haig Papazian, Carl Gerges, Hamed Sinno, Omaya Malaeb, Andre Chedid, Firas Abou Fakher and Ibrahim Badr have enjoyed this sound fetish savoring its façade of nonchalance and feeding on its lack of genre – sustaining their collective as Mashrouʼ Leila, an experiment. 

You can hear Leila, cascading melts of masculine vocals only suspended with thrusts of violin, beats and bass – attacked by neurotic melody that means no harm – sometimes tender, even sometimes on pause. Through the music, you can smell where Leila has been, in bed sheets, on sidewalks, jasmines in riﬂes and spilled coffee on dresses as she made you play with aubergines, dancing her dance. Music has constantly been their place to play with things, to match and mis-match, a project. 

In the various performances, Mashrouʼ Leila is a constant attempt to taste and produce, more than happy to harvest anyone from the audience as a guest in their encores. They have performed around Lebanon since 2008, playing in various venues in Beirut, taking over supposed public piazzas as well as clubs, pubs, hybrids and the such – they also played in Zahle, Sour, Jounieh, Saida and Deir el Qamar, each of which pushed forward their thinking about how to go about their music, lyrics and performance. It is only when Mashrouʼ Leila goes live, that you can actually catch a glimpse of Leila. As it talks to you of Beirut, the city that tastes of the absurd, the product of its day-to-day experiences, its stubborn security and lack of the latter, its musical bombshells, incoherent sexuality and thrusting pleasure…narcotic pain – as it brings forward hints of Arabic Tarab, rock, to folk pop, electro, you can see Leila in every man and woman in the silent- come-raving audience. In this trajectory, they participated in music workshops and concerts in Amman and Cairo to maneuver their way into a pan-Arab music scene, to know and to announce, more importantly to grow, musically. 

In March 2009, Mashrouʼ Leila won the Lebanese Modern Music Contest jury prize and public vote organized by Radio Liban in partnership with CCF, Incognito and the Basement. They recorded their debut album with B-root Productions, released in December 2009. The music in the album is a reclamation of the aftertaste; sequel-ing a dose of Beirut.

written by Raafat Majzoub

Freelance Photographer - Videographer - SL addict.

"Because good music could be so hard to find"

http://lailadahi.wordpress.com/

We are here to tell new stories, and to find beauty in new sounds. we are here to levitate quality Arabic music to the ears of the Arab masses, and to the heart of the worldwide music industry. we are independent Arabic music.

Update: The label is now closed for business. You can still enjoy the works of the outstanding artists of our catalog at their respective profiles on streaming platforms and social media.

Julio Iglesias has sold more than 300 million copies of his 80 albums released worldwide, including original versions in various languages, compilations, and live albums, which makes him the Spanish-speaking artist who has sold the most albums in history.
 
As the 1983 Guinness Book of Records recognized, on awarding him the only Diamond Disc ever given by this institution, Julio is the artist who has sung and recorded in the most languages in the history of music: 20 in total.  The most recent were in 2006, on the album “Romantic Classics”, in Mandarin Chinese, Philippine Tagalog, and Bahasa Indonesian.
 
In the 42 years of his unstoppable career, Julio Iglesias has received 2.600 platinum and gold records.
He has performed more than 5.000 concerts in 600 cities around the world, and more than 60 million people have seen him perform live. 
 
Julio Iglesias has sung duets with famous artists such as Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, Art Gurfunkel, Paul Anka, Charles Aznavour, Plácido Domingo, Sting, The Beach Boys, Nana Mouskouri, Mireille Mathieu, Dalida, Lola Flores, Pedro Vargas, Alejandro Fernández, José Luis Rodríguez, Wei Wei, Zeze di Camargo and Luciano.

Julio collects awards, accolades and honors from around the globe.
He won a Grammy Award in 1988, and one year later was awarded a star with his name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He holds an American Music Award and the prestigious “ASCAP Pied Piper Award”, the highest award of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, also given to Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Barbra Streisand.
 
In 1989 he was named UNICEF Special Ambassador for the Performing Arts, a title he holds with much affection and respect, and which he continues to carry in great esteem until the present day.
 
On April 1st 2013, he received 2 historic awards, in Beijing, as the First & Most Popular International Artist of All Time in China, an award that was presented to him by the World Renowned Chinese Artist Lang Lang, and The Guinness World Records for being the Best-Selling Male Latin Artist in History.

Julio is one of the first five artists who entered the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame, inaugurated in Miami, on April 23rd 2013. He received “La Musa” award, on that occasion.

Digital artist and designer  
for Palestine 

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