Crossover Dreams Grounded

The morning of the terrorist attacks, some of the brightest stars of Arabic music were awaiting flights in Cairo and Paris. They were on their way to the United States for a festival tour that all involved hoped would build on the percolating music scene’s successes here.

Those flights never took off.

Now, as reports of hate crimes against American Muslims, particularly those of Arabic descent, circulate and some Americans have expressed a hardened, even bitter, view of all things Middle Eastern, the artists in the niche community are worried that their hopes of crossover success may be grounded as well. Some who hail from predominantly Muslim countries and live in the U.S. are also plainly scared.

“Burned from both sides--is that the expression? That is how I feel,” said the singer known simply as Andy, a Los Angeles resident for 22 years who was born in Iran. “I’m banned in Iran because I’m supposed to be this evil musician and now, in the safe haven of America, which is beautiful and which we love, now suddenly people don’t like Arabs and Middle Eastern people, and it may not be a safe place.”

Andy, the rai singer Khaled and Egyptian street-pop star Hakim were among the performers slated to perform Sept. 29 at the Greek Theatre in the Desert Roses and Arabian Rhythms Festival, a touring affair of music, dance and food that had been slated for 10 cities, including New York and Washington. Tour plans have been scrapped.

One reason for the cancellation was that the celebratory sound of the music would be inappropriate now, according to Dawn Elder, vice president of Mondo Melodia, a sub-label of Ark 21 Records. A more pressing consideration was safety.

“The fear of the artists grew heavier every day after the attacks,” Elder said.

“They said to us, ‘Can you imagine us getting on a plane in the United States now, 34 of us, clearly from the Middle East, with Middle Eastern names? What would the passengers think? What would they do?’ And the shows--we weren’t prepared to put them in a position where some angry person might walk in with a bomb or hurt them just because of the way they look.”

The tour had been enjoying brisk ticket sales, reflecting a modest surge of interest in Middle Eastern and specifically Arabic music in the United States.

The popular 1999 song “Desert Rose,” teaming Sting with Algerian rai singer Cheb Mami, was viewed by some in the music industry as the type of spearhead hit that could help the music find a new audience.

The release of the haunting song and its use as the soundtrack of an oft-aired Jaguar commercial propelled Sting’s “Brand New Day” album into the nation’s Top 10 after it had been in stores for 45 weeks and had languished near the bottom of the Top 100. Collaborative efforts in 1996 between Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and the late Pakistani star Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also brought Middle Eastern sounds to new listeners.

“I think we’ve seen America in the last few years open its ears to more exotic sounds and influences,” says Miles Copeland, manager of Sting and chairman of Ark 21 Records.

“We saw the Latin thing cross over and we’ve watched the world-music thing grow, in particular the Arabic and Middle Eastern vibe catching on as another rich resource of music,” he continued. “... We were definitely making headway.”

Some in the music industry have cited as a model the work by Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel in the 1980s that drew curious listeners to their source material: African sounds and artists. Billboard, the prime music-industry trade publication, devoted much of a front page last month to the story “Arabic Music Moves West,” tracking the trend and noting that Arabic underpinnings have popped up in the recent works of Jay-Z, Shakira and Mandy Moore.

Now Elder worries that some potential listeners will avoid it. “We’ve had great breakthroughs after 21/2 years,” she said of her young label. “At concerts we’ve seen thousands of people, completely mixed audiences of all backgrounds and ages. Now, we’re still reeling from what’s happened. And we’re hoping this did not set us back two years.”

All across America, American Muslims are anxious. Many are hanging American flags in their homes and businesses, not just as symbols of support but as shields against bigotry. Police and security officers are patrolling communities’ hubs and houses of worship, and a spike in the number of hate crimes has already been tracked.

Some artists are unbowed by the crisis. Simon Shaheen, a Palestinian oud player and violinist who melds Arabic sounds with jazz and classical music, is scheduled to perform this weekend in Chicago. Born in Northern Galilee and a resident of Brooklyn for 20 years, Shaheen is confident that Americans can view the actions of terrorists as isolated crimes.

“I don’t think anything has changed for me. I will keep doing my work. I give concerts, I compose, I record,” Shaheen said. “I will keep doing the same things. Things may fluctuate, but I think in the long run this will not change things for me. I view audiences here as very intelligent, very open-minded. The whole concept of America is based on ethnicities bringing their culture and arts to this place. The artistic tapestry here depends on this.”

A tapestry is also how Andy, whose full name is Andy Madadian, has long viewed Los Angeles, making it ideal for his culture-meshing music. He sings in Armenian, Farsi, Urdu, English and Spanish, and one of his standard concert highlights is a rendition of the Eagles’ “Hotel California.” But now he feels ill at ease on the street, let alone on a stage.

“A concert does not seem like a safe place right now,” he said. He is a Christian and describes himself as a patriot of his adopted country, but he fears that those nuances are likely to be lost on some raging Americans. “There are some people not as worldly as we would like them to be,” he said.

The irony, too, Elder says, is that many of the artists who are at the forefront of the music’s success in the U.S. hail from or live in countries where their artistic expression has put them at odds with their governments. They sing often of faith, joy, freedom and beauty, and they look to America as both opportunity and inspiration.

The singer Shani says the music has the potential to bridge cultural divides that have complicated the very conflicts that apparently led to the terrorist attacks, if indeed they were the handiwork of extremists angry at the Western world and its policies.

Shani is an intriguing and unusual example of the Middle Eastern music’s push into American markets. Raised in Arkansas, she has no heritage links to the Middle East, but she found its sounds mesmerizing, and, after gravitating to Persian nightclubs in Southern California, she now performs in Andy’s band and has an upcoming solo album.

“To listen to this music and experience its culture shows you the other side of the propaganda we’ve always heard,” Shani said. “The way black music and Latin music have crossed over into the mainstream through the years, that had a huge impact on the way people perceive each other. It prevents that segmenting of population. And we need that now more than ever.”

The Desert Roses Los Angeles date will be rescheduled, possibly in February, Andy says, and it will probably become a benefit for the various victims’ funds set up to help families in New York and Washington.

Andy points out that the victims of the attacks, like any other segment of the nation, include Americans of a wide range of heritages and religions, including many who may have grown up listening to Middle Eastern sounds in their native countries or in the American homes of immigrants playing the sounds of their native lands.

“You can’t change people’s blood; you can’t change where they are from,” Andy said. “But what makes us special here in America is that we are all different, and the differences make us so beautiful. I have been numb for days. Something like this doesn’t happen to a city or country, it happens to people, all people. We’re all human.”