Hello, hello, you are listening to WREK Atlanta. Welcome to yet another episode of Continental Drift! You can listen to the recording of the episode here.
Today’s episode is about Bahrain! Bahrain, or Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island in the Persian Gulf, in between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Throughout ancient history it has been famous for pearl fisheries, which were considered one of the best in 19th century!
Bahrain’s population is around 1.68 million, and still it is an incredibly important place from a cultural standpoint and you will see that through the music today.
Some fun facts:
- Bahrain is knowns for its tolerance towards other religions, and inter religious marriages are common.
- Rules about female clothing tend to be relaxed (if you look up album covers of the songs i am playing today, u can see that)
- Bahrain legalised homosexuality in 1976! Caveat: sometimes homosexuals do get arrested because of the vaguely written.
Another Music Fun Fact: Bahrain had the first Persian Gulf-based recording studio, which they established after WWII.
Khaliji, translated as “Gulf music” is a popular genre. We will start with its representative, Ali Bahar, also called “Bob Marley of the Gulf”. His band Al-Ekhwa (The Brothers) sings in the local dialect, in contrast to many other Bahrain singers.
Next we will play Sultaniz or Sultanies Band (فرقة سلطانيز). They are a music band of Bahraini Iranians, and they perform folkloric songs in Arabic dialects and Iranian Farsi.
According to Wikipedia, “the Band was formed in August 1985 in Tariq Sultan's engagement party in the Hilton hotel, Bahrain, they continued to gain in popularity by the people of Bahrain and south Iran up until their dissolution in January 2006”.
Next up: Hala Al-Turk. She got famous because she entered Arabs Got Talent at the age of 9ish. Her Spotify bio says that she won the favorite female artist in Nickelodeon's kids choice in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
Hanan Redha is cool because she sings in different dialects of arabic: moroccan, egyptian, Gulf arabic, etc.
My favorite of the last three singers is Hind, also called “Arab Beyonce”.
Now we will shift into hearing one song from the genre of Sawt. Sawt means voice and it is a genre that is very popular in Kuwait and Bahrain. The main instruments tend to be oud and mirwas, sometimes violin.
This whole album is amazing.
Modern
Osiris Rock Band was internationally famous in 1980s.
Heavy Metal
Motor Militia is a heavy metal band from Bahrain. They are believed to be one of the first heavy metal bands in the Persian Gulf and Middle East area to release a full-length original album.
More
Ala Ghawas was actually a Fullbright Scholar. He makes music in genres such as Indie rock, Chamber Pop, and Folktronica.
Bonus track: Fijri, genre of pearl divers.