Damascus (AFP)

The hit summer hit in Syria talks about love and breaking up.

But more than the lyrics, the popularity of "Ya Weel Weely" (Oh misfortune, my misfortune !, Editor's note) comes from its clip which is played with humor of the chronic power cuts of the country.

Since its launch at the end of July, the ballad of the Syrian group "Safar", co-founded by singer Shadi Safadi, has obtained more than five million views on YouTube.

When the six-member group got down to making the music video on a low budget, the main challenge was coping with the daily blackouts.

"Every time I visited one of them (the musicians), the electricity was invariably cut off," recalls the director of the clip, Yazan Shorbatji.

“So why not film the song, and highlight the situation in the electricity sector?” He asks, explaining that he has finally integrated the problem by arming himself with flashlights and rechargeable batteries.

In a country where the war, started in 2011, devastated the economy and devastated infrastructure, the daily life of Syrians is marked by shortages of all kinds and sometimes nearly 20 hours a day without electricity in the homes of the capital Damascus. .

The Syrian group "Safar", whose music video for their song "Ya Weel Weely" has obtained more than five million views on YouTube, August 13, 2021 in Damascus LOUAI BESHARA AFP

“Some days we had barely an hour of power, while we were shooting sometimes for up to ten hours a day,” says Shadi Safadi.

The approximately five-minute video begins in the dark.

A hand lights a lighter.

Then the pallid beam of a flashlight cuts through the darkness of the room, dimly lighting up a goldfish in its bowl, before landing in turn on the musicians, all dressed in black.

We see two hands on a synth, then fingers strumming the strings of a zither.

Finally, the singer begins with a guttural voice his melancholy ballad.

The Syrian group "Safar", whose music video for their song "Ya Weel Weely" has obtained more than five million views on YouTube, August 13, 2021 in Damascus LOUAI BESHARA AFP

“Don't say my heart is hard and made of stone,” Shadi says.

- Erratic power supply -

In another scene, the group is worshiping a lamp with a quivering filament.

The instruments and the microphone stand were decorated with several colorful fairy lights.

"This video was made with all kinds of LED bulbs and lamps on batteries. True Story !!!

"People liked the lyrics and the music, but the audience was also touched by the clip," said Wafi al-Abbas, a member of Safar.

Across the country, "no less than 90% of Syrians do not have access to a stable and continuous power supply," according to a recent estimate cited by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The conflict, which has claimed nearly half a million lives according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based NGO, has also worsened poverty.

The Syrian group "Safar", whose music video for their song "Ya Weel Weely" has obtained more than five million views on YouTube, August 13, 2021 in Damascus LOUAI BESHARA AFP

And fuel shortages have skyrocketed prices, with supply also complicated by Western economic sanctions.

If the group has been around for nearly two decades, "Ya Weel Weely" is their first big hit that made them known to the general public.

© 2021 AFP