The Best of Azar Habib Podcast
Azar Habib Podcast عازار حبيب Click play to hear the podcast For translations of Azar Habib on the site click here The most-repeated of the Azar Habib (عازار حبيب) truisms is that he was the first Arab musician to blend a "light western style" with "eastern rhythm." To me, this is a pretty banal way to describe Habib's music which combines some of the most innovative and catchy beats to ever come from a synth. Testament to the Lebanese singer's popularity is how his songs are in constant rotation on Damascus and Beirut radio stations, but there were missteps along the way. Much like one wonders what Elvis was thinking in his Vegas days, one wonders what Habib was thinking recording songs that harken a carnival or, even odder, some type of vampire shakedown. Yet much to his credit, even when his songs teeter on kitsch, redeemable loops abound and he's never uninteresting. This podcast is a sample of my favorite Azar Habib songs, between tracks that I inst...