"Assi 2010" crowns twenty years of Assi al-Hillani

By Nohad Topalian from Beirut
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-02-18

[File] Assi al-Hillani recently released "Assi 2010" -- his 20th album in twenty years.

After performing Arab folk music for 20 years, the "Knight of Arab Singing" -- Assi al-Hillani -- released his 20th album using a very different style.

"Assi 2010", produced by Rotana, features 16 songs in Lebanese, Egyptian, and Gulf dialects. The rhythm of the dabkeh and grassroots spirit prevail in the songs, along with, for the first time, the beats of youth disco.

Songs in the Egyptian dialect include "Ahla Al-Awqat" and "Lahthat Wissal" composed by Walid Saad, and "Jirah Kul Al-Qulub", written by Jad Shaalan. Al-Hillani delivers the songs in his characteristic style of Lebanese singing, conveying masculinity, nomadic life, and a grassroots rhythm.

Songs such as "Ya Ghali" and "Halbawadi", composed by Syrian Maher Ali, as well as "Nadraa Ali", "Khiyam Al-Bedu", and "Barodati" feature nomad and mountain dabkeh rhythms.

Lebanese songs such as "Shu Ma Sar" make the album novel. The disco and electronic sounds emerge from collaboration with composer Budi Na'oum.

Meanwhile, the album's patriotic song "Watani Al-Ghali" is reminiscent of popular Lebanese songs. "Al-Sham al-Adia", written and composed by Fadi Mardini and played during the opening of the Syrian series "Beit Jiddi", is full of passion and patriotism.

Al-Hillani sings "Bi Ruhi Asounek", written by Munir Bu Assaf and composed and distributed by Wasim Bustani, in the Gulf dialect. He composed "Ya Raja'tek" with lyrics by Nizar Franicis, also in the Gulf dialect.

Last summer, al-Hillani played the leading role in Abdel Halim Caracalla's "Opera al-Daia" as part of the International Baalbeck Festival. The opera will be performed at the Citadel of Mohammed Ali Pasha in Cairo in May, coinciding with al-Hillani's arrival as the guest of honoyr in the play "Zayed Wal Hilm", also by Caracalla and currently showing in Beirut after its first performance in the United Arab Emirates.

Al-Hillani was born Mohammed Muzin Hillani in Baalbeck in 1970, the eleventh among thirteen siblings. In 1988, he changed his name to Assi al-Hillani after Lebanese composer and musician Assi Rahbani and the Assi river.

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