Sami Yusuf Concert

As you guys know, on May 18th I was at the Sami Yusuf concert. Well, here is a report about what went on.

The show was late because of some technical difficulties and the soundcheck was started later. That's why the show itself was late to start. It was delayed for an hour.

The performance the sound surprisingly was great since it was in a very small tent. I was suppose to be on the 1st row but since the organizers were totally unorganized we got pushed all the way to 5th row. I was close to the stage enough... I took MANY pics but only little a clear. It's ok though, they're cool.

Before Sami Yusuf got on stage, his full orchestral band from Egypt, all dressed in black, played a musical piece to warm the audience up. Then when Sami Yusuf dressed in a grey suite and a white button down shirt, got stage the audience went wild. He looked to be happy to be there. He started singing Meditation. After that he got into Al Mu3allim. Of course the crowd went even more wild. To be honest, I don't really remember the order of songs he sang later.

It seems his new album is all about terrorism and nationalism. The first song he sang was the one that a lot of us got to hear. It's about what happened in Chechnya, when over 200 non-Muslim children were killed by "so-called Muslims" guerrillas. Then of course the second song from the album was about Palestine. Then he sang another song that is originally from his origin Azberijan. It was another song about Palestine. It was sooo beautiful. I personally thought it was the best from his new songs, I've heard. The lyrics were both in English and Azeri. The lyrics were like as if you're talking about a loved one. It's soo gorgeous. I teared on that song. Of course he played a beautiful rendition of Tala3a al bardu 3aleyna on his electric violin. He's really good at playing that. He played with such passion and the sound of the violin was beyond beautiful. It was totally moving.

One thing I didn't like though is that I felt that Sami Yusuf was trying to get people to enjoy themselves by clapping singing and just taking part of the show. He wanted to fill the whole place with love and unity but I didn't feel the audience really participated as much as he would've liked. He mentioned that the show was not about Sami Yusuf but it was about the celebration of Allah. You know what's funny though? I was really into the show, I was singing out loud and my hands were high up clapping, swaying and just really moving with the music. Then I noticed something very cute at the beginning of the show before people got into the show. I got into it as soon as Sami Yusuf started singing without realizing, me and Sami Yusuf were doing the same hand gestures, he looked directly in my direction and just smiled. OK, at first, I was thinking, it must be coincidence that he looked at me and smiled but then later my friend who was sitting right next to me noticed it too. So I realized that it wasn't a coincidence. He did smile at my gesturing.

I just remembered people were ready to go dance on 2 songs. Hehehe.. Allahu and Ya Mustafa. The people behind me were ready to crack me up from laughter because it seems that they're in a wedding. Hehehe. It was great. Towards the end people didn't have enough so they wanted an encore. As the audience requested he sang al Mu3alim and Ya Mustafa again then he left.

After the show I waited and waited with my friend until he came out. The security didn't say much to us since we were waiting a little far from the area he was coming from. So he came out met a bunch of us, gave autographs and photographs. I actually too a pic with him but honestly, I look horrible in it. Hehehehe. I really don't want to share it. Hehehe. I'll share the other pics. I didn't ask for an autograph because I don't think it's cool for a girl my age to ask for one. Hehehe...

I mentioned my lovely experience of meeting a relative of mine that I never knew she existed and you guys shoud've seen the look on his face. He was surprised and very happy to hear this. He was in a hurry though because his father was waiting for him.

The photos should be in my next post. I'll post them later...