Fayrouz was once Nihad Haddad

Nihad Wadih Haddad, better known as Fayrouz, was born on November twenty-first, 1935 in Lebanon.

She is considered to be one of the most famous Arab artists of those who are still living today.

Her love for singing and flowers was rivaled only by her love for her grandmother. Fayruz used to spend most of the summer holidays at her grandmother’s house, assisting her in the housework during the day and listening to her stories at night.

Fayrouz’s father had saved some money of his meager income for his children’s education.  It was at school that her voice immediately attracted the staff’s attention for it has as a unique quality. She was a good and hard working student though she hated mathematics.

Her career began in 1952 when she first started singing for audiences. Her first large-scale concert was in 1957 and by 1960 she was known as the first lady of Lebanese singing.

Today, Fayrouz is known worldwide. The Arab world listens to her music especially in the morning.

She continues to be known as one of the most famous singers in the Arab world.

Story By : ِAreej Asad, Mohammad Alazza, .

Photo credit : Lajee center

Music byFayrouz

Palestinian Traditional Dresses

Embroidered dresses are an important part of Palestinian culture and history. Dating back to ancient history, women have been hand making beautiful dresses. Once an indicator of class and marital status, the dresses have now become a more symbolic costume to remember Palestinian culture and keep the tradition alive. In this piece, Sondos Nidal talks about this important handicraft and interviews her grandmother about the history of embroidered dresses.

Story by Sondos Nidal

Photo credit: Athal Al Azza

Why I Read Ghassan Kanafani

I have written this piece because I want everyone to know about Ghassan Kanfani. He put something in my heart and made me feel proud about being Palestinian.

Story by Athal Al Azza

Music by Le Trio Joubran

photo accessed from   http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/2003/ar/0709_bazzi.html

Beit Jala REPRESENTZ

Recently we posted an interview with UK-based Palestinian hip-hop artist, Shadia Mansour.

What made the piece particularly interesting was its exploration of hip-hop from a Palestinian cultural perspective. There’s a really mixed reaction here to Western or American styles of music – if you missed it and you’d like to learn more, you can catch the interview here.

Since then, we met a local 18 year old who not only is a massive fan of hip hop but a burgeoning artist himself.

Athal Azza got the details.

Photo: Mohammad Qassim

Suhaib Omar Mislat is 18 years old and lives in Beit Jala. His family are Palestinian refugees from Beit Natef village. When Suhaib was just 11 years old he started listening to hip hop and writing some rhymes.

“Hip hop is a great way to express yourself, and communicate the truth about what’s happening here in Palestine.” He explained.

“I’ve always loved the music – especially from the legendary 2Pac.”

Now, just seven years later, Radio Lajee has helped Suhaib AKA Black Shot’s Band For Change to record his first track.  We think it’s pretty awesome – let us know what you think!

A big thanks to Radio Lajee’s Layan Azza, Hesham Zakai and Asmah Abdul-Hamid for translating the lyrics into English (click ‘show transcript’ below to check them out for yourself.)

Click Here To Show Transcript

Shadia Mansour on the Importance of Palestinian Hip Hop

Shadia Mansour is a Palestinian artist who is based in the UK. Her medium is Hip Hop and she believes that it is the next crucial phase in Palestinian resistance. Here in the West Bank we have a mixed reaction to this genre of music – many people feel that it doesn’t reflect our culture.

Radio Lajee’s Hiba Al-Azraq caught up with Shadia while she was in Bethlehem on tour. She has been visiting the West Bank since she was a little girl, her family are originally from Haifa and Nazareth.

Click Here To Show Transcript

WHY I DANCE by Miras Al Azzeh

Ahlan wa sahlan! Welcome to the first Radio Lajee program. For our first edition, 14 year old Miras Al Azzeh has prepared a special story about the traditional Palestinian dance, Dabke.

In it, he talks about what Dabke means to the Palestinian people and to him personally. He also interviews a Dabke teacher at the Centre, some of the young performers, and his own grandfather who reminisces about Dabke in the days before Occupation.

This story kicks off our podcast series which you can now subscribe to by right (or alt) clicking on the “Podcast Feed” link at the top of this page, copying the URL/Link Location, and pasting it into the subscribe-to-podcast dialog box in your favourite podcatching application eg iTunes, Juice, etc.

Click Here To Show Transcript