I am looking for a popular Arabic song during the 60's (the kind that
would be played on the radio).
I am looking for the words in english letters with the translation into Arabic.
A bonus would be a downloadable file with the music.

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 24 Mar 2004 05:17 PST

Hi dogsbollocks,
Are you looking for a specific song or *any* popular Arabic song?
Rainbow~

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Clarification of Question by dogsbollocks-ga on 24 Mar 2004 06:03 PST

Any popular song, that may have been on the radio during that time (1960s)

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Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 24 Mar 2004 06:08 PST

Are you looking for the lyrics in Arabic script or in Arabic that has
been transliterated phonetically into the Roman alphabet?

markj-ga

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Clarification of Question by dogsbollocks-ga on 24 Mar 2004 07:45 PST

Arabic that has been transliterated phonetically into the Roman alphabet

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Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 24 Mar 2004 11:22 PST

dogsbollocks --

In order to be sure that you get what you want before I consider
closing this question with an anwer, I need just one more
clarification from you.  For your purposes, does it matter what the
country of origin of the singer/song is?  This may make a difference
as to whether the music's style is secular, whether it is traditional
in its country of origin, or whether it has some degree of Western
influence.

I have found the requisite English and transliterated Arabic lyrics to
what was clearly a "hit" song first recorded in the late 50s by a very
prominent Lebanese singer, along with a 50-second audio clip and a
video stream of a complete rendition of the song by this artist (which
is unavailable until tomorrow because of server maintenance). 
Supposedly this song was popular throughout the Arab world as were
many subsequent recordings by this artist.

Does this sound like it would be a completely satisfactory answer to
your question, or would you prefer to "hold out" for a downloadable
(e.g., MP3) file of another song?

markj-ga

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Clarification of Question by dogsbollocks-ga on 24 Mar 2004 20:26 PST

MarkJ,

It sounds perfect.

dogsbollocks --

Thanks for your clarification(s).   Based on your additional input, I
am confident that I have information that will suit your purpose.

The song's title in Arabic is "Nahna Wil Kamar Jeeraan" (sometimes
spelled Nihna Wil Amar Jiran, Nahna Wal Amar or Nehna Wel Qamar Jeran,
et al.)  Its English translation is "We And The Moon Are Neighbors." 
The artist is Fairuz (sometimes spelled Fairouz).  The song was
written by the Rahbani Brothers.

Here is a link to a Web page that contains the lyrics in English with
a transliterated Arabic version of each line conveniently placed next
to it:
Shira.net: Nahna Wil Kamar Jeeran
http://www.shira.net/nihna-wil.htm

(Because of my uncertainty about the copyright status of the song, I
cannot post the complete lyrics here, but you should no problem
accessing them at the above site.)

That site also contains a link to the 50-second audio clip of Fairuz's
recording in RealAudio format that I referred to in my clarification
request, as well as to clips to excerpts of another vocal version and
an instrumental version.

Here is a link to the Web page devoted to video clips and MP3s of
Fairuz performances.  A six-minute video clip of Nehna Wel Amar Jeran
is included about two-thirds of the way down the page:
Music Axis: Fairuz
http://members.aol.com/musicaxis/fairuz.htm

This linked page contains a comprehensive biography of Farouz and a
description of her career that establishes that she has been a major
artist since the 1950s:
Al Jadid: Fairouz: A Voice, A Star, A Mystery
http://www.aljadid.com/music/fairouza_voice_star_mystery.html

The song "We And The Moon Are Neighbors" "was popular in the late 1950s:"
Shira.net: Nahna Wil Kamar Jeeran
http://www.shira.net/nihna-wil.htm

In a report on a concert by Farouz in 2000, it is clear that the song
has become "a classic;"  indeed, Fairouz apparently to this day is
affectionately called "The Neighbor of the Moon":

"After two intense hours the audience still wanted more and demanded
that Fairouz come back on stage for an encore. She sang three more
songs for them, and even tried to appease them with classics like
Nahna wil Qamar Jiran (We and the moon are neighbors) and Oudak
Ghannan (Your oud is a singer)."
Fairouz.com: Fairouz Mesmerizes Emotional Beiteddine 
http://www.fairouz.com/fairouz/special/bdcyber.html



Additional Information:

Here is a link to Fairouz's Web site, which contains an enormous
amount of information about the singer, her songs and her career
Fairouz.com
http://www.fairouz.com/



Search Strategy:

There is a lot of online information about Arab musical performers and
recording artists.  However, most of what is available in English is
translated from Arabic, which results in much variation in the
spelling of song titles and proper names.   The special challenge here
was finding a "certifiable" hit song whose lyrics were available in a
convenient both in English and in transliterated Arabic.  Happily I
was able to find this one, even though the name of the song is spelled
at least five different ways in English and the artist's name is
spelled in at least two ways.

I first found Farouz by accident when I was following up leads on an
Iranian singer named Aref as part of my initial round of searches. 
Since the word "aref" appears in the lyrics of the Farouz song, I
found that song (including the transliterated lyrics) with the
following simple search:

aref lyrics
://www.google.com/search?q=aref+lyrics+&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=0&sa=N

Once I had that good lead, I discovered the rest of the information
with searches like the following:

fairuz OR fairouz
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=fairuz+OR+fairouz

fairouz OR fairuz nahna OR nihna OR nehna
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=fairouz+OR+fairuz+nahna+OR+nihna+OR+nehna

"we and the moon are neighbors" fairuz OR fairouz
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22we+and+the+moon+are+neighbors%22+fairuz+OR+fairouz


Based on your helpful clarifications, I am optimistic that this
information is what you are looking for.  If anything is unclear,
please ask for clarification before rating this answer.


markj-ga

dogsbollocks --

Thanks very much for the five-star rating.

markj-ga