Unappreciated Yemeni songs [Archives:2006/927/Last Page]

Atif Awad
Yemeni youths stand before TV screens to watch songs and music on different Arab and non-Arab satellite channels. The youth in Yemen cannot avoid such crowds before the TV screens nor do they shift attention away from these channels. For a variety of reasons neither girls and nor boys can find their youthful identity. Often they want to imitate the western way of singing. The young Yemenis also have the desire to escape from their current situation and be musicians, by forming music bands in Sana'a, Taiz, Aden or Hodeida. But the hobby, the dream and the hope is short-lived.

For more than one reason, some desperate youths' dreams vanish, while other young people's dreams become endowed with life. Some youths form bands to then perform their own music, instead of just listening to and watching songs on different satellite channels.

When I asked him, “who are you? And what are you doing with this instrument – the most modern one in the technology of music?””