Thank you, Mr. Mike Massy, for sharing your new beautiful song on YouTube. The latter is entitled “Jazr W Mad“, which means “High Tide and Low Tide“.
Even if you do not understand Mr. Mike Massy’s mother tongue, Lebanese-Arabic, you may perhaps recognize the word “Habibi“. It means my love or lover, which also could be said to a friend or… even to a stranger you might meet on the street!
Related to the above, when Bambi heard this song with its repeated “ya habibi“, she could not help not to remember her first trip to her birth country, Lebanon. It was in in the summer when she turned 20 years old. While there, she fell in love with a new song that played a lot on the radio. When it was time for her to leave Beirut back home, her dad kindly took her to a nearby music store, called “Ti Amo” (his store neighbour). He wanted to offer her the song. The store owner, kindly and patiently, played SEVERAL recent Lebanese songs, from different albums, one after the other. Each time, he asked Bambi if it was the one. Each time, she said “sorry, it is not the one“. He then tried to help further by encouraging her to recall a few words from the lyrics, maybe singing them if she can. Bambi paused for a few seconds and she proudly expressed the following: “Habibi… lalalala… Habibi”! With humour, he replied: “Tell me Bambi, is there any Lebanese song without the word habibi in it” : )? They all laughed at his funny joke. Even thirty-two years later, Bambi still smiles when she hears the word “habibi” repeated in a song. This story is not only about linguistics, but also and especially about the kindness of the people of Lebanon, especially owners of stores on Saint-Louis street in Beirut :).
On this light note, Bambi hopes you will enjoy Mr. Massy’s talent. For your convenience, the translated English as well as Arabic lyrics appear here: https://shorturl.at/JDrIe.
