Habibi Song NEW!
For Lenny Letter, I interviewed both Jamalifard and Lynch about growing as a band, songwriting in two languages, and details of their new EP. In May of this year, Habibi will be on the road for the first time in Europe.
Habibi Song
**RJ:** I mean, anyone out there who sincerely loves music and is open to broadening their world to songs sung in different languages and has the capacity of appreciating cultural diversity and its influence through music.
After completing a master's degree in engineering at the American University in Cairo, he decided to pursue art rather than a career in engineering. After some time in a band with some of his friends, he began a collaboration with Hameed El Shaery and released a series of successful songs that established his place in the Egyptian music scene. His career gained momentum in the 1990's, culminating with his most successful hit (to date), "Habibi Dah", the song translated on this page.
More than 100 song translations that appear on this web site, including this one, were created by Dr. Tahseen Alkoudsi. Together with his wife Kathe, Tahseen owned an import business in Lawrence, Kansas known as Cartouche.
I'm a rapper or song writer that is based out of Colorado. I know that it seems like Denvers not a place where a strong rap presence is but I'll tell you don't pass the check. We got a flow thats built different. Im just the first to master it. I have been making music for 6 years now. Also, I constantly make creative pieces other than songs, for those who wish to have a deeper meaning behind their lyrics and need assistance in conveying that to potential fans. But if you've got the passion and the means to push rap, definitely let me know...
Habibi was formed in the spring of 2011 by Detroit expatriates Rahill Jamalifard and Lenaya Lynch, tapping into their Motown roots of simple but infectious pop melodies delivered with punkish attitude. Jamalifard took lead vocal duties, Lynch played guitar and sang, and the lineup was rounded out by drummer Karen Isabel and bassist Erin Campbell. They played often around the New York City area, eventually releasing several tracks in the form of 7" singles and online streams. They participated in South by Southwest and toured with like-minded acts such as King Tuff; by 2014, they'd released a self-titled debut album of their dreamy-eyed and dancey pop on Burger Records. In 2015, they joined forces with La Luz to release a split single. In the years that followed, the band was joined by additional guitarist Leah Fishman and a four-song EP, Cardamom Garden, arrived in 2018. After a round of international touring, Habibi set to work on their sophomore album, exploring a wider range of instrumentation and arrangement than before. The more refined Anywhere But Here arrived in early 2020, expanding from the band's garagey beginnings with Middle Eastern instrumentation in some songs.
The Egyptian megastar had shared with his fans a video of him during his return to Egypt on a private plane from Dubai after filming his new song "Ya Habibi", which achieved great success since it was launched a few days ago, where it amassed 4 M views on YouTube in two days only.
The song is a blend of rap and oriental music. Husseini said in a press statement that the video has become the No. 1 trend in Egypt, the Arab region and most of the countries of Europe, North America and Southeast Asia.
Lenny: It was kismet! I had taken a break on music and was questioning myself a lot, and when I met Rah, it just was a natural thing to come over and start working on songs again and getting excited about writing. We both encouraged each other on our ideas.
Each one was uniquely special, and we came out of it being inspired by the kids. My favorite day of the week was when we took part in a Girls Rock workshop where the ages ranged from 5 to 60 years old, and this little 5-year-old wrote a killer song about sleeping on the beach! We had the time of our lives.
*Correspondence: Assal Habibi, Brain and Creativity Institute, Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, 3620 A McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2921, USA, assal.habibi@usc.edu
Roya is a brand new Brooklyn trio with a pretty strong pedigree: singer Rahil Jamilifard fronts Habibi, drummer Hamish Kilgour is a member of legendary band The Clean (as well as NYC's Mad Scene), and Jay Heiselmann is in Grooms (and formerly French Miami). Their sound isn't too far from what Rahil does in Habibi, and you can stream a song below. 041b061a72