- Title: Israeli musician with Iraqi roots finds fans from Tel Aviv to Baghdad
- Date: 27th February 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) ISRAELI MUSICIAN WITH IRAQI ROOTS, DUDU TASSA, SAYING: "The reason I started to make Iraqi Arabic music was… there was not one reason, but a few reasons. First, I grew up in a house where we constantly listened to Arabic music - my mom especially - though many times when we were home she used to turn it off because we were ashamed of the language. It
- Embargoed: 13th March 2019 17:22
- Keywords: Iraqi music Iraqi-Jewish heritage Iraqi Jews Iraqi music in Israel Israeli singer Arabic music in Israel
- Location: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / JERUSALEM / BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- City: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL / JERUSALEM / BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Race Relations / Ethnic Issues,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001A3CYM39
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Singing in Arabic, an Israeli musician is winning over listeners from Tel Aviv to Baghdad, covering tunes by his grandfather and great uncle, an Iraqi Jewish duo who were once two of the Arab world's most famous performers.
Dudu Tassa's new album, El-Hajar, which in Arabic means "exile", is a mash-up of modern takes on melodies made popular by his forebears, the late Daoud and Saleh al-Kuwaiti, who fled from Iraq to Israel close to 70 years ago.
The duo owned a club and played in major concert halls, but in Israel, they ended up playing at weddings and bar mitzvahs, Tassa said. His grandfather's music was adored by Faisal II, the last King of Iraq, he added.
The family of the 42-year-old musician was among the tens of thousands of Iraqi Jews who fled in the mid-20th century to Israel, whose creation in 1948 and successive defeats of Arab armies caused bursts of popular anger and violence against Jews.
Saddam Hussein ordered the Kuwaiti brothers' names removed from Iraq's national archives after coming to power in 1979, Tassa says.
Today, some 600,000 Israelis, out of a population of close to 9 million, can claim a measure of Iraqi ancestry - a trace of history Tassa and his band, The Kuwaitis, have brought to light through their three Arabic-language albums.
"There are many, many reactions from the Arab world, all the time. We see them on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram," Tassa, who regularly sells out concerts in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities, said. "They send us messages from Iraq and Baghdad saying, 'Come perform, come perform'."
One fan in Baghdad, Fatima Kabbani, said Tassa's grandfather established the modern Iraqi song.
"(I liked) how he is combining between the traditional and the modern in a nice musical way," 24-year-old Kabbani said while streaming Tassa's music from a park near the University of Baghdad.
Art is separate from politics, she added. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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