Whether you’re Arabic or Western European or Japanese or African, music is the universal tongue.” A phenomenon on its own terms “But the lyric he improvised was almost the same as mine – it had to do with lost love and longing – which goes to show how the music suggested the exact same emotion to us individually. “The amazing thing is, he didn’t understand a word I was singing,” Sting revealed.
His subsequent performance floored all concerned. After seeing Mami perform at Paris’ Bercy Arena with an orchestra and legendary prog-rock guitarist Steve Hillage, the singer-songwriter was keen to collaborate with the Algerian performer possessed of a “swooping voice that just mesmerizes.”Įncouraged to improvise in Arabic, Cheb Mami created a remarkable counterpoint to the vocal melody Sting had already devised. Different languages, a similar emotionįor his part, Sting was smitten by Cheb Mami’s music during the period leading up to the recording of Brand New Day. In effect, a potent form of African folk-blues with origins reputedly dating back to the early 20th Century, Raï initially appealed to young people seeking to modernize traditional Islamic values and attitudes, but it enjoyed global recognition during the late 80s. Ultimately, though, “Desert Rose”s tangibly North African feel was realized through an inspired collaboration with Cheb Mami, a proponent of the Algerian folk music style known as Raï. But it’s true that ‘Desert Rose’ has a definite Arabic, North African flavor.” The song’s backing track came from Sting and his band simply jamming ideas, which Sting described as “a song about longing, a kind of Sufi idea – romantic love as an analog for the greater love of God.” “I don’t do world music or reggae, I do whatever I do. “I’d rather say that my ambition is to defy the titles that people make for you,” Sting reflected in a 1999 interview. Click to load video Defying categorization
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