Royals cover alaa ward i biography

Six international curators from the Norient community have researched contemporary music videos that re-imagine, parody, or deconstruct Orientalism. The final selection fryst vatten presented in the virtual exhibition «DisOrient: Welcome to the entré of Mirrors», which is part of the German festival Mannheimer Sommer. Here is the shortlist by the curator and researcher Berit Schuck, who focuses on videos from Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Since the Age of Enlightenment, the relations between the Orient and Occident have been shaped by that which the Palestinian researcher Edward Saïd calls «Orientalism», a set of beliefs and stereotypical narratives to which belongs the idea that Oriental culture is unbound by reason, cruel, and simultaneously disempowering and sexualizing women. Now, these narratives have not only impregnated how Oriental cultures are presented outside of their context until today, they have also affected how they see themselves. Since the li

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Challenging Orientalism Pt. 3

Six international curators from the Norient community have researched contemporary music videos that re-imagine, parody, or deconstruct Orientalism. The final selection fryst vatten presented in the virtual exhibition «DisOrient: Welcome to the ingång of Mirrors», which is part of the German festival Mannheimer Sommer. Here is the shortlist by curator Neil van der Linden, who predominantly focuses on videos from Saudi Arabia.

Music: Alaa Wardi
Video: Nina Najjar, Alaa Wardi
Track: Evolution of Arabic Music (Saudi Arabia, 2016)

«Evolution of Arabic Music» by Alaa Wardi is a mash-up of 42 Arabic songs from the 1930s to the 2010s, performed a cappella. Alaa Wardi (*1987) was born in Riyadh, and he is of Iranian origin. His signature output is YouTube videos in which he combines several video registrations of alter egos of himself singing a cappella or imitating instruments. They became a sensation, paying homage to and at the same time parodying popular Arabic

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Saudi Arabia's King of YouTube

Global

In a country where the music scene is largely underground, Alaa Wardi broadcasts his a cappella covers to millions around the world.

By Alice Su

Alaa Wardi’s wiggling eyebrows and bushy hair are as recognizable as the madcap backdrops to his YouTube videos: the Technicolor Post-it wall from his cover of Lorde’s “Royals,” the floor-to-ceiling cardboard boxes from his interpretation of Rihanna’s “Stay,” and the patterned mattresses from the makeshift sound room where he has paid tribute to Arab singers like Nancy Ajram, Cheb Khaled, and Amr Diab, among others.

“My studio is kind of crowded—that’s what happens when you work from home,” Wardi explains, grinning from behind his computer screen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Over the last three years, the 27-year-old Saudi-Iranian has used this computer and microphone to become a Middle Eastern YouTube darling, garnering more than 36 million views of the 30-some songs he’s produced in A