{"id":572,"date":"2013-12-06T16:00:59","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=572"},"modified":"2013-12-15T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T16:52:10","slug":"young-american-singer-enthralls-arab-music-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/young-american-singer-enthralls-arab-music-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Young American singer enthralls Arab music fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jennifer<\/a>Young American Jennifer Grout doesn\u2019t speak a word of Arabic, but has taught herself to sing the Arab world\u2019s best-known, most difficult songs, and could even win its major music competition.
\nHer blonde hair loose and without a sign of make-up, the 23-year-old appeared before a panel of judges to audition for the Arabs Got Talent show.
\nWhen Egyptian film star and panel member Ahmed Helmy asked her in Arabic what her what her name was, she didn\u2019t have a clue what he was saying.
\nBut then she began to play the oud and sing a classic by Egyptian diva Umm Kalthoum, \u201cBaeed Annak\u201d (Far from you).
\nShe stunned the audience, enunciating every word to perfection as her voice effortlessly navigated the quarter-notes that make Arabic music so distinctive.
\nGrout, who grew up in a musical home in Boston, Massachusetts and has studied piano and violin since the age of five, only discovered her passion for Arabic music three years ago.
\nAs a 20-year-old student in Boston, Grout says she \u201ccame across an online article about Fairouz,\u201d whose unique, angelic voice rings out on radio stations across the Arab world every morning.
\n\u201cI listened to her and watched a video of her, and I was just really intrigued and mesmerised by her voice. So I decided to start exploring Arabic music more,\u201d Grout told AFP.
\nEver since, she has learned to sing not only songs by Umm Kalthoum — whose voice is still considered the Arab world’s finest three decades after her death — but also Syrian star Asmahan and the compositions of Egypt\u2019s Mohammad Abdel Wahab.
\nQuietly confident, Grout\u2019s is a rare presence on the hugely popular Arabs Got Talent, which usually hosts artists more likely to choose pop music, either Arabic or Western.
\nAsked why she didn\u2019t choose that path, she laughed: \u201cThat would be like asking an opera singer why she sings opera as opposed to Britney Spears.\u201d
\nAlthough the music she loves best is decades old, it would have been well-nigh impossible for Grout to develop her passion without the Internet, with its wealth of videos of classical Arabic songs and their lyrics.
\nShe says that although she doesn\u2019t speak Arabic, she understands the lyrics because she has found the translations for many of the songs online.
\nAt the same time, she has asked her Arabic-speaking friends to help.
\n\u201cOf course it\u2019s essential to understand what you\u2019re singing about,\u201d she said while preparing for rehearsal at a production studio of MBC broadcaster in Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut.
\nSeveral teachers have taught her to play oud, which she sometimes plays as an accompaniment.
\nThe final of the show will be held on Saturday, when Grout will compete for first place against 11 other contestants.
\nVoters will call in to name their favorite, and Grout says that, if she wins, she will use the opportunity to get more exposure.
\n\u201cI guess I would just see what opportunities rise out of this. Hopefully this will give me enough exposure to get performance opportunities, because that\u2019s really all I want to do, if I can, for the rest of my life,\u201d she said.
\nYouTube and Facebook users have left scores of comments on her singing, most of them positive.
\n\u201cJennifer is the best,\u201d writes one on YouTube. \u201cWow, damn she is good!\u201d writes another. \u201cShe has a beautiful soul,\u201d writes a third.
\nBut some viewers have expressed disbelief, calling her performances a publicity stunt.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a trick in order to gain publicity,\u201d says one skeptic on YouTube, accusing the Arabs Got Talent show of merely pretending that she can’t speak Arabic.
\nGrout says she is familiar with that disbelief, and that she experienced it at her fateful TV audition.
\n\u201cInitially when I got on stage the audience was not expecting much,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI actually heard the audience started to laugh. And then later on, about 30 seconds in, it changed to silence, and then it changed to cheering, because everyone in the end was very impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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