Back in the good old days, when Arabic music was actually completely 100% Arabic, this was not a concern. When Um Kolthoum, Fairouz, Wadi’ El Safi, and Sabah got on stage you had no doubt that you were about to listen to an Arab production. However, during the nineties more than ever, stars like Amr Diab, Elissa, Nawal El Zoghbi and even Saber El Robai and Fadel Shaker’s “composers” stole endless melodies and pieces from their Turkish and Greek counterparts. This problem has become of much less importance as copyright protection in the Middle East strengthens, but the problem is by no means gone and now, Arabs blatantly steal from each other!
For example, Amal Hijazi’s “Ya La Lali Aman ” and Dominique Hourani’s “Ah Ya Albi” have the same exact opening, I actually have made it a game to guess which song it is when my iPod is on shuffle mode! Seen as Amal’s album came out before Dominique’s, I’ll give Amal the credit for this song. May Hariri’s “Einak Minni” and Rola’s “Hamawetak Feya” suffer from the same problem, and in this case May released her album first. This doesn’t mean that our composers don’t still steal from outside, though! Fadel Chaker’s latest “Allah Aalam” has an opening stolen from an Ibrahim Tatlises song. Carole Samaha’s “Esmaani” is stolen from a Greek song. Cyrine Abdelnour’s “Law Bas Fe Eyni” is partly stolen from Jennifer Lopez’s “Ain’t It Funny?” It’s not all bad, however, some artists sometimes do it the legal and honorable way. Rayan’s “Kannet Rouhi” music is used under permission from the Turkish composer of Ibrahim Tatlises’ song. Elissa’s “Shou El Hal” was done under permission from Tarkan.
Still, perhaps we should also school Iranian and Turkish composers on ethics, too. Zeynep Cassalini has a song that uses Elissa’s “Agmal Ihsas” music. Don’t even get me started on Iranian imitations; I have actually watched a video where a middle-aged man wearing “bling” sings “Vay! Vay!” to the music of Nelly Makdessy’s “Oof Oof”!
By guest writer Ahmed
comments
yeh thats rue i listen to turkish music and i notice it is sometimes stolen but also turks and iranians do steel from arabs i have some examples:
Nancy ajrams song sehr 3ooynu
jad neklha-baris0z stole it kembazin biri
and lots more
Hi
Stolen music is a big problem for artists in arab world. When no one is punished, everybody continue to steal.
Bye
Nelly Makdesi stole OofOof from a Turkish singer her name is Gulsen and the name of the song is OofOof
sorry guys but Fayrouz also sang a lot of stolen songs.
Nelly Makdessy’s “Oof Oof” is a cover version of the original Turkish composed by nazan Oncel and sang by Gulsen. Let's get it right. And Zeynep Casalini did not use anything without permission - she sampled a piece of the song and gives credit for it in her album. Using Casalini as an example of this being a "both way" issue is very misleading. Though Tarkan's songs have been stolen and covered without permission the whole world over; throught Israel to Aregentina.
Let's face it, most of today's Arab singers and composers are fake and steal other artists' music and I'm surprised nobody thought of sueing them. It's not just the music whether it's Turkish, Spanish or Greek, the singers copy the styles of famous super celebs such as Ricky Martin, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez Amr Diab, Nawal El Zoghbi, Jad Nakhla, Elissa, Maysam Nahas, Ahmad Sharif, Nelly Maqdisi, Mohamed Atteya, etc.
I was listening to my iPod which was on shuffle mode, and it really suprised me how much similarity there was in the 2 songs: Ayman Al A3tar "Law A3raf" and Elissa "Bastanak".
The reality is there are not many creative people within the industry. Because there are 2 types of creativity;
one of which use the old ideas and makes them into a something new.
And the other of which created something new out of imagination and thought.
Unfortuantely, there aren't many in the industry that fall in either of these categories.
So the simple solution is to steal the music. Lazy and silly. Taking credit for work that you have not even worked for. I suppose they do that because they don't show much variety in their work, so the only way to do so, is by stealing music.
Don't get me wrong. Not all are like that. There are a few honest and truly talented Artists out there like Nancy Ajram, who do work hard to create something new.
But there are those who steal. So, how does it feel for those on the other end. i.e. those that have worked hard and their achievements were ripped off by another Artist who took all the success and credit.
It's not fair. It's completely dishonest.
Oof Oof was used with the Turkish composer's permission in Nelly's case :)