Almaza does "fete de la musique"

Well, June 21rst is usually known as "fete de la musique" et despite everything Beirut is celebrating it.

Almaza jumped into the pool with it own ad - which pity, could have been a full campaign (how hard was it to do a drum kit with the front being an Almaza cap, or a guitar morphed into a bottle, or maracas made from an Almaza tin can, but I digress.

I do like the visual quite a bit, which is why I implied the idea of campaign.

The line? "Faites de la musique" (do musique instead of "fete" meaning party or commemoration) has been used and re-used and re-re-used. So it was a missed opportunity there to be honest.

What Almaza is losing in creativity at times it is just making up with persistence.

The Shelter Tapes by Tarek Chemaly now released

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

And today I am launching "the shelter tapes".... Ever wondered what we heard when we were in the shelter? Answer is here.... 

Mozart Chahine - making comparisons stand

Well, a lot of singers started their careers under the shower! That is a fact. So Mozart Chahine in an ad which I presume is by now old because it must have originated during a lockdown (which lockdown I know not), is taking the home-profession to the next level visual. The copy goes (on the broom) "bored at home?" only to answer (on the electric guitar) "delivered at home" (although I am a copy guy I dislike when copywriting goes above and beyond the concept - which by the way is the copywriter's job actually). So here we are a good ad which went under the radar for so long.

Elias Rahbani RIP

 

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Elias Rahbani passed way. Really I cannot even begin to state what this man did to popular Arabic music. I am not a musicologist but I am a researcher in pop culture and his influence cannot even begin to be measured, and no, not just the Fairouz repertoire - I am talking everyone else, the whole artists he fostered and those whose careers he pampered, or the greats he collaborated with (many of the late Sabah songs were his compositions!) not to mention advertising jingles galore (Barilla anyone?), or the songs he made for children (3ammi bou massoud) or the eternal theme songs (Allo? Hayete) and the list goes on!