root salad Ghalia Benali
Singing tonight on the Belgium/Tunisia border. Bas Springer hears her background.
and modern Arabic music. She was born in Brussels in 1968 to Tunisian parents, grew up in the south of Tunisia and has been liv- ing in Belgium again since the late 1980s. In her childhood days she was already listen- ing to French chansons, Persian and Egyp- tian music and sung readings from the Koran. This multi-talented artist is blessed with a beautiful, flexible voice which is at the heart of her poetic and romantic songs. Her latest project MwSoul is a fascinating and daring encounter between Arabic music and poetry, and four wind instruments from the Belgian jazz ensemble Mâäk.
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Besides being a singer and songwriter, Benali is a graphic designer, actor and dancer. She is one of the great artistic tal- ents that arose from the Arab world around the turn of the twenty-first century. She sings in classical Arabic, but in her composi- tions she evokes a wide range of influences, from Arabic folk to Western jazz and from spoken word to classical Indian music. She has performed on many international stages and with different projects, impress- ing diverse audiences with her voice, dance and stage performance.
Benali made her musical debut in 2001 with the album Wild Harissa, a beautiful fusion of Arabic, Arabo-Andalusian, flamen- co and Indian music. Her third album, Romeo And Leila (2006) offers a mix of west- ern and Arabic music, thematically elaborat- ing on the love between Romeo and Leila. On Ghalia Benali Sings Oum Kalthoum (2010) she pays homage to her source of inspiration, the legendary Egyptian diva.
“When I was a child I believed that Oum Kalthoum was my grandmother. I had a poster of her hanging on the wall of my room, so I could always see her. Because of the project about Oum Kalthoum I could return to my roots. Oum Kalthoum was my school. Of course I can’t sing like her because I don’t have her voice but I feel like her granddaughter. The granddaughter doesn’t need to have the same voice as her grandmother but she can sing her songs without copying her. It took me years to do the Oum Kalthoum project. You need a lot of courage but I do it without any preten- tion. While performing this project in Arab countries I have noticed that younger kids, who didn’t listen to her music anymore for whatever reason, actually love her music.”
The central theme on her new album MwSoul is the connection between man
he Tunisian-Belgian singer and composer Ghalia Benali is interna- tionally acclaimed for her passion- ate interpretations of traditional
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and creator and life and death. Benali wrote the lyrics for four songs, the others are from poets and singers from Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The enclosed booklet with English translations is useful for those who don’t understand Arabic. The daring combination of Benali's deep, undulating vocals and the jazzy arrangements of the ensemble Mâäk (with a leading role for Michel Massot on tuba and sousaphone) is fascinating. With a wide range of emotions – from reflective to exuberant joy – Benali knows how to capti- vate the attention of the listener from the beginning to the end. What makes this album so interesting is the interplay between Benali's marching vocals and the swinging arrangements for tuba, saxo- phone, flute and trumpet, supported by percussion and ud. It adds another great album to her already impressive oeuvre.
“MwSoul, short for Mawsouline, means connection. I started this project when the Arabic Spring broke out. I felt the urge to communicate and made contact with young people in Tunisia and other Arabic coun- tries. I realised that they just need some- body to tell them their dreams are real. My philosophy is: you don’t have to be afraid of anything, just believe in your dreams and something good will happen.”
“While doing the MwSoul project I was happy to meet people from different cul- tures. My aim was to try to talk together. Many times we don’t speak the same lan-
guage. In Belgium for instance a Turk speak- ing Flemish can’t communicate with a Tunisian speaking Arabic and French. So how can we meet? Through music.”
which are not a fusion or a collage. I want to create a new sound so I call my music ‘contemporary Arabic music’. I composed all the melodies on my latest CD and they are certainly Arabic but the arrangements are made by the wonderful musicians of Mâäk under the direction of trumpeter Laurent Blondiau. They add their own colour and ideas to the arrangements. They are not playing Arabic music, they are reacting to Arabic music. I love this project because it’s new and challenging.”
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“I know many Arabs who have a prob- lem with their identity. They want to change but they don’t know how. I’m always looking for new challenges and new ways of expressing myself.”
“Today many people in Europe don’t know what to do with their comfort. They are missing new ideas and spirituality. I can feel spiritualty in exchanging ideas, in fair trade, in love and in caring about what’s happening in the rest of the world. MwSoul is about con- necting what is not connected yet.”
facebook.com/Ghalia.Benali/ F
’m trying to go back to the roots. I also want to be open to other people and other cultures and I want to create new projects
Photo: Vincent Peal
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