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

raqatech رقتك
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“Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance when you’re perfectly free.” rumi

Uke enthusiast, peanut butter connoisseur.

Cairokee first started by the name “The Black Star “performing their favorite covers in both English & Arabic at various gigs around the country. It wasn’t until later till they decided on the name “Cairokee”; inspired by both the words Cairo and karaoke, and mixing up the two words, meaning the band is singing along with Cairo. The band was later officially formed in 2003, and is currently consisting of Amir Eid (vocals & rhythm guitar), Tamer Hashem (drums), Sherif Hawary (Lead guitar), Adam El-Alfy (bass guitar) and Sherif Mostafa (Keyboard). Cairokee’s sound evolved tremendously from one album to the next, reflecting their goals and continuous ambition to sing along with Cairo, which is a fast paced and ever evolving City. 

The idea of writing their lyrics, playing music and performing live for local and global audiences (all before the age of 30) was a dream come true for all the band members who have always been childhood friends. Their first major hit was “Sout El Horeya” which has over millions of views on YouTube and was ranked a world record as one of the most watched videos in the shortest period of time. Soon after their success, came “Matloob Zaeem, “Ethbat Makanak” and more hits followed.In a digitally ruled world, Cairokee have always managed to come on top with massive smash hits such as “Yal Midan” featuring Aida ElAyoubi, pushing the song to the number one most video in the history of Facebook and eventually lead the album “Matloob Zaeem” to top the Egyptian charts for months. Their second album “Wana Maa Nafsy Aaed” followed in the big steps on “Matloob Zaeem” back in 2012, in addition to single mega hits such as “Ehna El Shaab” written by the legendary Abd El Rahman El Abnoudy. In 2014, Cairokee released “ El Sekka Shemal”, carving a new benchmark in their long road of success featuring collaborations with Souad Massi and the legendary Ahmed Fouad Negm.

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