Amman (AFP)

After more than a year of a pandemic that kept him off the stage, Iraqi song star Ilham al-Madfai broke his silence this week with a hymn of hope to overcome the surrounding gloom .

In his apartment in the Jordanian capital, the one who is nicknamed "Baghdad Beatle" (The Beatle of Baghdad) because of his admiration for the famous British pop group, grabs his guitar.

"After the absence, you must come back, your dream is a cloud, your sadness is a mirage. Come back tenderly, your voice rings in my ears, leave the sadness, forget the past", sings the 79-year-old man.

The headline, titled "After Absence" and posted this week on YouTube, talks about the need to maintain hope despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Ilham al-Madfai composed the music and Omar Sari, a young Jordanian poet, wrote the lyrics.

Installed in Jordan since 1994, the Iraqi singer revolutionized the traditional melody of his country to the chagrin of purists but to the happiness of the younger generations.

In 1967, returning to Iraq after a stay in London, the young man aroused the stir by putting back the Arab instruments such as the qanoun, the oud, the flute and the violin to replace them by the electric guitar, the drums, the piano. and the saxophone.

He will reintroduce them later to create a fusion between eastern and western music.

Thus, it will accompany European songs with Arabic instruments and vice versa.

- "Ancient poetry" -

"In Arabic music, the instrumental introduction is endless and the melody sad. I reduce the opening and I choose the instrument that will print a cheerful rhythm," he told AFP.

“Apart from the ones I write, the lyrics of my songs are generally drawn from ancient poetry and folk songs. I perform them by mixing all the musical influences that I discover,” he says.

He paved the way for new singers who were inspired by his music.

"All I did was renew the old Iraqi song so that it (...) resists the wear of time. I believe I have thus saved songs from Iraqi heritage from oblivion", explains the musician.

"Everyone sang with us, men, women and children. I grew up in love with music", he confides, nostalgic for the 1950s when art was flourishing in Baghdad.

In his apartment in Abdoun, an upscale district of Amman, where books, paintings and a large photo of his deceased wife mingle, Ilham al-Madfaï spends his time drawing, composing music, writing poetry and singing.

"We must continue to sing in all circumstances to send a message of hope to the world because music is the language of peoples. It crosses borders," he assures us.

But the artist does not hide his frustration at being away from his audience.

- Singing in Baghdad -

"If the epidemic continues, I will sing on my balcony like the Europeans did (...) Life must go on," he says.

Forced to cancel concerts in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the Gulf in 2020 due to the pandemic, Mr. Madfaï performed without an audience in May in the Roman amphitheater in Amman.

The concert was broadcast by Iraqi and Jordanian televisions.

But his most ardent desire is to return to sing in Baghdad.

"We all left our country for various reasons. I live in Jordan but I have remained an Iraqi who all ties to his native soil," he explains.

And whoever has performed in prestigious venues like the Royal Albert Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London or the Trianon Theater in Paris, one day wants to sing in a small cafe in Baghdad, al-Zahawi.

In its beginnings, this café, opened in 1917 and located on the famous Moutanabi Street, hosted the cream of maqam singers, traditional Iraqi music, such as Mohammad Al-Qubanji and Youssef Omar.

"It is in this small street Moutanabi, where writers, intellectuals, musicians and artists of all religions meet, and which breathes culture, that I dream of going to sing after the pandemic", confides the singer.

© 2021 AFP