Ehdeniyat International Festival 2011

Written by ehdeniyat team

Ehdeniyat International festival stage had witnessed an Iraqi night by excellence with the Iraqi musician Ilham ElMadfa’i who sang, played music and talked with the audience with usual humor and elegance. More then 3000 people were waiting for him: lot of them came from neighboring Arabic countries such as Jordan and Syria, in addition to a big number of the Iraqi Diaspora resident in Lebanon who came to Ehden to see the son of their country, in addition to Swiss families and other Irish that loved Elmadfa’i music and rhythms.
The musician sent a warm gratitude to Ehden and to the committee of Ehdeniyat International festival, and the big thank was to the presence of Elmarada Party, the deputy Sleiman Frangieh and for his support to the culture and music.
The big interaction with audience pushed Elmadfa’i to be generous in songs and music so he sang for more then two consecutive hours. Between the Iraqi folklore and the special songs of Elmadfa’i and famous Lebanese songs, the musician presented a group of works very diverse and deep meaning, so we was a singer, a musician and a maestro of high level whereas he directed his band professionally. The first surprise was that the opening of the concert with the song of “Falling Leaves” that Elmadfa’i sang and played music lone, than the following songs came on:
-    "تريد مني التفاح"
-    "بابوري رايح، بابوري جاي"
-    "يا محمد لا تتعمد"
-    "شربتني المي"
-    "بين العصر و المغرب"
-    "حلوة يالبغدانية"
-    "بنت الشلبية"

The audience requested Elmadfa’i to sing two of his famous songs, so accepted and sang "خطار" و "مالي شغل في السوق" so he commented saying that those two songs were famous first in Lebanon, pointing on the great role of Lebanon and Lebanese to make him famous on the Arabic level and thanked Lebanon for building the name of Ilham Elmadfa’i.