‘Al Jeel Al Jadeed’ was down, but it’s back again!

‘Al Jeel Al Jadeed’, my new music video, apparently remains on the stormy track it has been on from the very birth of the song. Yesterday, due to certain circumstances, I have had to take the song down from Youtube and make a new edit for the video. The good news is: it’s online again! The bad news is, it was rising so fast, reaching over 1200 views in 8 hours, and it’s going to be a challenge to start from scratch again.

 

This song has quite an unusual history, and perhaps this is a good opportunity to share it with you. Here is a little outline of how this song came about, and the hurdles it has been facing, and how they were overcome.

 

When I originally wrote the soundtrack for this song, I recorded it as a song in English, titled ‘Gate of the Sun’. It was meant to be a shoutout of support for the brave actions of Palestinian activists in the West Bank, who set up tent villages on territories slated for confiscation and settlement building by Zionist occupation forces on Palestinian land. The first of these tent villages was called ‘Gate of the Sun’, hence the title of the song.

 

When I had almost finished recording the song, my attention was drawn to the struggle of Samer Issawi. Strongly moved by his courageous resistance, I got a powerful wave of inspiration for the song ‘Hungry’, and moved my attention towards recording and publicizing it. I got caught up in the campaign for his release, and regular followers of my work know how much effort went into that afterwards.

 

When Samer booked his moral victory over his Zionist jailers, my attention turned back to ‘Gate of the Sun’. I had already recorded the whole song, lyrics and all, and laid down preliminary vocal tracks. However, the drive was gone, also because the tent village activities had been strongly reduced or even ceased, I don’t remember exactly. Still, I was determined to get this song out. I approached a fellow musician whom I had often worked with in the past, for providing some fiery solos for the song. Part of the reason to do that, although I usually prefer to work alone, was because I was hoping to get a new drive and inspiration for finishing the song.

 

She agreed, but then, to my surprise and shock, after listening to the song, she told me that she didn’t feel comfortable being a part of the message of this song. I didn’t understand this, since she had been involved in many of my songs before, some of which had an even stronger and more explicit message. I was heavily disappointed. However, I had no choice but to accept this, and the song was shelved again.

 

 

 

I couldn’t pick it up again, although I tried, and then I got caught up in the preparations for my performance in the Netherlands in June. When I returned home from Holland, I felt that I had to change directions with my music. The type of response I was receiving when performing in the Western world, especially in Holland, was not leaving me satisfied, or giving me the feeling that there was a purpose for my music. For a long time, I was left without direction, and without new ideas.

 

However, as time passed, I felt that from my inside, I was feeling a strong urge to record songs in Arabic. As you perhaps already know, I have quite a few Arabic songs already in my repertoire, but the vast majority of my songs is in English. In a previous article, I have elaborated on my thoughts and feelings on this subject, and how I decided to make a new beginning with the intention of recording more Arabic songs.

 

I was already getting lovely new melodies in my head, but when I sat down one day and opened my previous recording of ‘Gate of the Sun’, and turned off the vocal track, I suddenly got a strong inspiration for singing Arabic lyrics to the track. It had been a rough weekend in the Arab world, with stories of painful tragedies unfolding in Syria and Egypt, and my mind was full of those thoughts. I felt a strong urge to speak out against sectarian violence. Within less than half an hour, the words and melody flowed from me, in one go as they usually do, and a new song was born. It was the song ‘Al Jeel Al Jadeed’.

 

The very next day, I recorded it. In the weeks that followed, being quite busy with my work in the hospital, I didn’t have much time to work out the details, but bit by bit I modeled the song to my liking.

 

When I was satisfied, I sent it to a few friends. I really had no idea how it would be received. Even to myself, this song sounded different from previous ones. Fortunately, their response was strongly positive. I decided to go ahead and make it an issue to release the song, and make it the first song of my new Arabic album. I sent it to the recording engineer for mastering, and though he was a little hesitant towards the unusual format of the song, combining such a funky style with Arabic words, he strongly complimented the way it was recorded. Again, I felt encouraged.

 

Still hesitant on how this song would be received by an Arabic audience, I did the ‘pilot study’ that you can find elsewhere on my website. The result was really encouraging, and I again felt it as a green light to go ahead.

 

However, what I noticed was that the strongest positive response came from Gaza, of all places. Then it hit me: I would not release this song on mp3 until I had a music video from Gaza. I approached my contacts, but it became clear that going to Gaza was not really an option, considering the closure of the Rafah border by the Egyptian authorities. Shahd Abusalama had given me strong positive feedback about the song, so I asked her if she would be willing to work with me on making a music video for the song in Gaza, even if I couldn’t be there myself. I was very happy that she agreed!

 

The difficult situation in Gaza caused many delays, and the fact that Shahd was slated for traveling out of Gaza for her studies put a lot of pressure on her, but she was determined and enthusiastic to get the job done. When the filming had been completed, the challenge of getting the footage to me started. This also led to a new delay of almost three weeks, due to the ridiculous and unjust situation of the siege of Gaza, but I finally received them.

 

When I launched the finished and edited video on Youtube, it was received with fantastic enthusiasm. It became the fastest riser on Youtube of any song I had ever released. However, at the height of its steep rise, I had to take the video down due to circumstances that I am not in a position to elaborate on, and create a new edit for the music video. The sad part of that is that you usually only get one chance to make an impact, and a strong impact it certainly was, considering the high number of views in a short time.

 

I have shared this unusual story with you about this unusual song. A song born in English, and raised as an Arab. A song of unity, cooperation, mutual understanding. A song about overcoming hurdles, that managed to overcome hurdles as it matured into its present state. What I ask of you now, is your support. If you can help bring the new version of the video back to the same glorious level of its first launch, I will be much obliged. The way to do that is to share the Youtube link everywhere you can, send it to your friends, and tweet about it. Writing positive comments under the video like the ones that were there before in the first version, is also very helpful.

 

Let us get listeners to think about the value of unity, and the pain of sectarian disruption, and let us call out for the people of our Arab lands to embrace one another in brotherliness and compassion. Thank you!

 

Doc Jazz