Late Nite Lounge Vol. 11: Sounds from the Sahara

There’s an Arabic word that Paulo Coelho likes to use in his book ‘The Alchemist’: maktub. It means, ‘it was written.’ If you have watched the African Cup of Nations, and marveled at Egypt’s unbeaten run to the championship and their dominance over the competition, you realize that it can best be summed up by that word. Maktub. They were never going to lose, not with that football. In the spirit of fair play and in recognition of their exploits on the field, and also because bar Souad Massi’s beautiful song Bel El Mahdi, the Arabic language has never graced this website, I’ll share with you two songs from the Sahara; the first is a haunting Jasmon remix of the song Hanina, by one of Egypt’s finest singers, Mohamed Mounir, while the other is a rework of an iconic Dahmane El Harrachi groove from Algeria, Egypt’s favorite rivals. Both songs can be found on the Putumayo compilation Sahara Lounge.

As for Angola's performance in this competition, that's for another time, another post, and another set of songs...

Hanina
Ya Rayah

-Photo by Celso Flores