The video song in the dark is very popular
The Syrian "Ya Willie"... A song of love, reproach, and the reality of a country
The band "Safar" was founded about 20 years ago.
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“Oh Willie Willie” is a song of reproach, love and separation, but it is not only the words that contributed to its spread, but the video clip that was filmed in the dark due to the long hours of daily power outages in Syria.
Since it was uploaded to YouTube about a month ago, the band's song "Safar" has garnered more than five million views, and the band concluded the video clip with a simple comment: "This video was made using all kinds of LEDs (lights charged with solar energy and energy saving) and batteries... It is a true story.”
For years, the areas under the control of the Syrian government have been suffering from long hours of rationing, due to the lack of fuel and gas needed to operate the generation plants.
The economic sanctions imposed on Syria prevent the regular arrival of oil ships.
The electricity crisis has worsened in the past months, with rationing hours reaching about 20 hours per day in some areas.
Private generators are only available on a very small scale due to their high cost, often in commercial establishments and restaurants, so homes rely on batteries for lighting and possibly charging phones.
One of the band's founders, Shadi Safadi, told AFP: "The electricity comes for only one hour, or even less sometimes, while we were working for more than 10 hours per day.
From here, the band did not find a solution but to give up electricity.”
The video clip begins in a cramped, dark room, in which one of the band members lights a small lighter and then the band members appear one by one in the dark.
In the room, which is lit with decorative tapes and energy-saving LED lamps, Shadi sings: "Don't say about me my heart is hard and that it's stone... Don't say about my mind that I'm forgotten and abandoned."
He explains: "We filmed the work in a small room of four meters, and it was very hot."
He added, "Sometimes we were forced to stop filming and recording because of the low battery, so we had to dim the lights... Despite that, we enjoyed producing the song."
On YouTube, there were comments on the song, many of which talked about the video clip.
One of them wrote that the room “is similar in its details to the Syrians’ rooms that are illuminated by LEDs,” and another commented, “God willing, electricity will return to Syria… so let the next (video) clip be about water.”
Wafi al-Abbas, one of the band's members, says: "The song was done with love, and people certainly loved the words and music, but the audience also felt that there was something that he sensed through the video clip."
Although the "Safar" band was founded about 20 years ago, it is the first time that the audience interacts with it in such a large way.
on batteries
The director of the video clip, Yazan Sharbatji, said: "We tried to produce it with the simplest capabilities, and we did not expect the song to achieve this success, and I think that the issue of filming it on batteries had a role in spreading it on a larger scale."
He added, "Whenever I visit young people, I find the electricity is cut off.
From here the idea came to me, why not film the song, and through it we shed light on the reality of electricity?”
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