Yes, I still disappointed with the unpopular decision to replace Jerash Festival with what's now called "Jordan Festival". I don't know what crossed Minister of Culture's mind to issue such decision since I've not heard justifications or good reasons. The only thing I know is that Jerash festival, which finally obtained a good reputation, has been canceled and substituted by this new (but don't think innovative) festival.

Anyways, one of the good (pop?) artists who I really like is Mika. The good news is that he will hold a concert at the Dead Sea on July 25. (The bad news –for me- is that probably I will not be in Jordan !).

Mika has three awesome songs which I adore: Grace Kelly, Love Today and Relax (Take It Easy), which I am sure you've listened to before. He's 24 year old, and only yesterday, I discovered that he's half-Lebanese.

His public performances and jobs have varied from classical performances in the Royal Opera House to writing in-flight music for British Airways and creating an Orbit chewing gum jingle. He won three awards at the World Music Awards and he's nominated for the Grammy Awards.[W]

If you are charmed by his vocal tonalities, and shocked by his unique "falsetto", this will be the good chance to meet him.

A must for Opera lovers will be the live performance of tenor Placido Domingo at the Jerash South Theater on July 21. He's well known to be one of the Three Tenors (the other two are Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti). [W]

Diana Krall, who is really famous in Jazz circles, will be at Amman's Citadel on July 8. [W]

You can take a look at the program of Jordan Festival:

Labels: Jordan, Music

Many gossips and rumors are coming out about the presence of the Columbian singer Shakira (of Lebanese origins) at Jerash Festival, these voices appear stronger after her concert in Lebanon has been postponed (or even canceled) and by taking in consideration the fact she had previously two tour dates in Egypt and in Dubai.

Personally, I think it's not probable that Shakira will have a concert in Jerash as first reported by some websites, it's more credible to see Shakira as a guest of honor as she will help to add a brighter 'international image' for the festival. However, today's edition of Al-Ghad reported that, until now, organizers of the Jerash Festival neither affirmed nor denied the future presence of Shakira in this year's edition of the festival.

But a short visit to the official site makes it clear that the edited version of the program does not refer to Shakira at all, the day of the opening ceremony has been postponed (it was first announced as 19/7) and the first concert will be performed by Ozomatli on 26/7. Ozomatli is a band from Los Angeles, their music is a fusion of a wide variety of jazz, funk, hip-hop and Spanish rock. They're known for their political activism, their English-Spanish songs and for the different ethnic origins of the members.

Visit Ozomatli Official Site

Click here to have a look at the Jerash Festival Program.

Labels: Jerash, Music

We be burnin in Amman?

Ok, now it's official^*... the Jamaican Raggea star Sean Paul will perform live in Amman!! This is not one of the stupid sentences of AlGhad newspaper ads.. Sean Paul concert will be in Action Target and tickets are 45 JDs and 85 JDs... for more information click here and here

MORE ABOUT SEAN PAUL
Birth Name: Sean Paul Henriques
Date and place of birth: 8/1/1973 - Kingston (Jamaica)
Trivia:
Has been the member of Jamaican national water polo team.
Sean Paul's mother encouraged his interest in music by purchasing a $30 keyboard for him when he was 13.
Likes eating pasta.
Had worked as a chef and as a bank teller before pursuing a singing career.

Labels: Jordan, Music

First they've done it with Opeth and Anathema, now with local and Lebanese bands in Rock Grip II, It seems the guys of the Da'ira are working very well to prohibit any possible clustering of metallers, so if you think national security is threatened by Al-Qaeda or Zarqawi, then you are an idiot for sure, the real threat for Jordan is Iron Maiden and James Hetfield! Yeah we must fight these Satanists that are trying to deviate young Jordanians from the right path... The worst thing is that there are jackasses who believe in these silly things !

Good Questions: Will we become a normal country within 100 years or we remain in arrears for the rest of our lives? Is it possible to show a rock concert fully permitted by our f*cking government and preferably without the presence of plain-clothes police officers that ask you a lot of stupid questions like "to what organization you belong?" or "are you Satanist?". What the hell we have to do for listening to some music different from that of Wael Kfoury ?

And all we are victims of those long-bearded hypocrites...

Why the gentle mo5abarat banned this concert? Why we're so backward? There are many things in this country that make me angry but this is on the top of the list, no for real I'm asking myself WHY ???

And to piss you off again these are some (old) pictures you'll like to see >:(

Labels: Jordan, Music

Band: +44 or Plus 44 Album: When Your Heart Stops Beating Genre: Punk/Rock Year: 2006 My Rate: Band Components : Mark Hoppus Travis Barker Shane Gallagher Craig Fairbaugh Album Tracks: 01. Lycanthrope 3:57 02. Baby, Come On 2:46 03. When Your Heart Stops Beating 3:12 04. Little Death 4:05 05. 155 3:29 06. Lillian 4:38 07. Cliff Diving 3:40 08. Interlude 1:12 09. Weatherman 4:33 10. No It Isn't 3:31 11. Make You Smile 3:44 12. Chapter XIII 5:07

Once upon a time there was a group called Blink182, the group affairs were going well, lot of fans, much of nice music, worldwide tours, and millions of copies sold, but a day the guitarist/singer Tom Delonge left the band to form Angels and Airwaves, however Travis and Mark, together with Craig Ferbough (The Nervous Return) and Shane Gallagher, announced their new band called (+44) or plus 44... +44 is the international dialing code of the UK. Previously, +44 announced that they will render their music somehow more electronic, a female punk vocalist (Carol Heller) was invited to join them, but later she discovered she did not fit well in the punk/rock direction so she left the band. Fortunately their music has not been affected by these two events. The first album: When Your Heart Stops Beating, has been released on 14 November, it consists of 12 tracks. Good music and a few better lyrics than that of Blink, not by chance Mark said that this is the most lyrically personal music he ever written. The Tracks When Your Heart Stops Beating, becomes popular as its video (Travis has his arm broken during recording), music and lyrics turned out into a little more brutal fast-punk, as we can feel in Lycanthrope... I wake up at the end of a long, dark, lonely year It's bringing out the worst in me I hear your voice start breaking in fear When the lights go down The song was chosen as soundtrack to Tony Hawk's Project 8, I also recommend 155, No It Isn't (released on the Tom's birthday ... haha), other songs should be listened too, they mix fine punk music with an exact dosage of melancholy and darkness, good work 44! Visit the website, the myspace and you can listen the album (legally) here ! And Mark has a blog too!

Labels: Music