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A musical journey...
“For years, my passion for music changed my life. Some songs are like an old, dependable friend. I've always tried to interpret and perform these songs differently: my way. My love for these songs and my passion for music made me create "Belaaks".
In 2006, I left Beirut and went to Orsay, a southwestern suburb of Paris. I lived in a small inn of 8 rooms and invited musicians to work on the Belaaks project, my very own “timeless” album.
Musicians travelled from Brazil, Algeria, France and other parts of Europe.
Seven days later, long hours of hard work and a lot of creativity within the Val D'orge studio, we recorded 12 instrumental tracks.
One afternoon, while at a café in St Germain I fell in love with a gypsy band, Troubadour that played the most enchanting music. Unable to get their music out of my mind, I invited them to perform "Shefto mn biid" and within a few hours I had one more track to add to my album.
“Encontros e despedidas” came to me in a similar way except I heard Catia Werneck’s beautiful voice at a Jazz club my friend William Lecomte had invited me to. Everything about Katia captivated me and I knew she had to be a part of “Belaaks”.
Once I returned to Beirut, I invited many of my friends, Rami, Yara, Jihad Akl, Abir, Sevine and Aline Lahoud to add their Lebanese charm to the album. They were as excited as I was, and brought their own passion to the music.
The title song Belaaks is a version of the classic Quizás, Quizás, Quizás that has been through several interpretations, Riachi’s being the most recent. The track starts with a quarrel between two loved ones about a promise to love each other forever that turned out to be just the opposite, “belaaks, belaaks, belaaks”. However as the song climaxes the couple make up and declare their love for each other.
This is how Belaaks came to be - a musical journey to create a timeless album...”
Belaaks – Song List
o Shefto mn biid
o La vie en rose
o Lamma bada
o Hymne a l’amour
o Petite fleur
o My baby
o Bint el Shalabia
o Fly me to the Moon
o Encontros e despedidas
o Ya Habibi
o Bhebbak
o Enta Ana
o Bellayl
o Belaaks
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