A favorite weekend pastime of students in Egypt is taking out feluccas on the Nile. Feluccas are small boats with bright lights and floors of varying durability. We walk down the river to the docks, negotiate a price, and have them for a few hours. Besides the river view and the good company, music is the best part of a felucca excursion. Either one of the Americans plugs in their iPod and we sing along to our familiar favorites, or we get an Egyptian playlist. I don’t know quite enough of the songs to sing along, but they’re great to dance to and great for learning Amiyya. The only downside of all this musical immersion is that I can never find out the songs' titles or singers.
Trying to track down a song usually goes something like this.
Me: Hey, what’s the name of the song that goes “Habibi, I love you?” You know, the one they played last night?
Egyptian: That is every song they played last night.
Me: No, this is the really good one. It goes like- *I attempt to hum the melody*
Egyptian: I’ve never heard that song in my life.
I’ve considered taking a notepad to parties so I can write down song names as they play, but have never gotten around to it.
Up-tempo, cheerful songs about making questionable life decisions are by no means unique to America. A party favorite is “7agaren al3 alshisha,” by a singer called Hoba. Basically it describes feeling dizzy after smoking shisha and wandering around Cairo with not a care in the world. In his defense, he says, “Mish ha3mel keda tani (I won’t do that again)!” Everyone sings along to the chorus of “Yani, yani, yani…” and it’s a great time. I’m looking forward to expanding my repertoire of Egyptian pop.