“Happy Birthday, dear friend, and here something of a celebration. I’m actually copying to an acquaintance of ours, who gave a strong hint that this type of message should have video, not merely audio files (if you recall the Egyptian tracks I sent previously). Also, I promised him I would search out some representative Khaleeji music, being an ‘authentic’ type of Arabic popular music native to the Persian Gulf ports. Actually there is a Khaleeji renaissance going on right now. Artists throughout the Arab world are turning enthusiastically to this type of music. A case in point is Dounia Batma, who says she is working for the greater glory of Moroccan music, but is seldom heard singing in anything but Khaleeji dialect! New on the scene, she caused a big scandal by marrying her manager, who was himself already married. Her video of ‘Hobak Asal’ (which tails off into ‘Omy Daeatly’) appears to chronicle the affair.

“There’s some question whether women should be seen dancing to Khaleeji music. Some believe that in public they should just sway their hair back and forward as you will be able to see in Mona Amarsha’s ‘Ay Shog.’ The recording is apparently from a concert for a pan-Islamic conference in Doha. The quality is not great, but you don’t need to watch the whole video, if you’ll just take in the hair. Mona Amarsha is a Moroccan of Amazigh background, but has an easy command of Khaleeji dialect, even to the extent of employing some outlandish pronunciation. Now, this question of women dancing in public is addressed by Balqees Ahmed Fathi, a new Yemeni star, who appears to be saying in her video of ‘Deggo Khbaity’ that it’s not something you really have much control over.

“Khaleeji music is usually more light-hearted than other Arabic pop, but the Iraqi singer Shatha Hassoun has found ways for it to express dark moods. Let me explain what’s going on in her video of ‘Khatiya.’ Often there is no video available for a really great song, so someone who’s computer savvy matches the song with scenes from Egyptian soap operas and uploads the makeshift video to YouTube. In this instance the filmmaker has manufactured the soap itself and added a lot of psychological overtones. Khaleeji music can be adapted in other ways as well. For example, there is a driving tune called ‘Makhtoba’ from Mona Amarsha’s aforementioned Doha concert. At first sight it seems not to belong to this genre, yet it is recognizably Khaleeji on account of the rising stutter-step at the start of each verse. The title means ‘betrothal,’ which reflects the often conservative subject matter of Khaleeji lyrics, but all lyrics in Arabic popular music are conceived as poetry, and you won’t find much shock value or social commentary, except perhaps in Egyptian shaabi blue-collar music and some rare ‘alternative’ discs.