Let the Funky Arabs Turn you On!
by Guest Contributor Ethar El-Katatney, originally published at Muslimah Media Watch.
Sexy Girls. Arab Beauty that’ll rock your world. Sea, sex and sun. Let the funky Arabs turn you on!
The new “Funky Arabs” single by Jad Choueiri, the Lebanese singer known for crooning love ballads, has had over 150,000 views on YouTube in one month.
Choueiri spends four and a half minutes singing about how Arabs are not the evil figures typically portrayed in Western media. “We’re not what you see on CNN and the BBC. […] Ain’t no bombers, we’ve got the guts,” starts off the track. So far, so good. But then the main message of the video really unfolds, which, when translated from pop star-speak, can be summarized:
“Arabs aren’t terrorists! We’re just like you, the all-wonderful West. We too have sexy blond girls with silicone boobs dancing in next-to-nothing clothes in smoky nightclubs, gyrating their hips and filing their nails. Our guys are all cut, and walk around wearing bling. We love to smoke, drink, and take drugs. We party all night and we are oh-so-cool.’
A disclaimer at the beginning announces that everyone who participated in the music video is an Arab, just in case you can’t possibly believe that such beauty, sexiness, and botox addiction exists in our countries.
The women in this music video, are, to put it simply, nothing more than half-naked eye candy. As Choueiri announces, “We’ve got sexy girls / Arab beauty that’ll rock your world.” The first woman we see is blond in a blue strapless dress and red heels, and her silicone implants are visible when she stands in front of an x-ray machine. Another is dressed in what looks like a pink ice-skating outfit, straddling a huge wine bottle in a martini glass. Another pours wine down her throat and then, on her hands and knees in a bikini, dances.
The men, unfortunately, don’t fare much better. Plucked to within an inch of their lives, they could not look more metrosexual if they tried. Ripped abs and humongous biceps seem to be the criteria that need to be fulfilled to be one of the “loaded guys” who “you gotta see when they get their highs.”
Strangely enough, there isn’t any “funny” stuff between men and women. The video basically goes as follows: Jad singing in his awful-looking shirt, sexy girls, Jad singing, sexy girls, guys and girls sitting in a group, Jad singing, guys and girls dancing stiltedly at the beach with a whole lot of water. For all this talk of getting freaky with Arabs, no one in the video actually gets freaky with anyone else.
With its over-the-top scenes, such as Choueiri arriving at a nightclub red carpet on a camel, and women injecting themselves with botox in the bathroom, Choueiri’s music video seems to be the poster child for parody. The singer’s handlers insist he is quite serious—inasmuch as pop can be taken seriously.
The idea behind Funky Arabs is to show a different point of view of a segment of the Arabic society,” reads an email from Jad Choueiri’s management to me. “It doesn’t have the pretension to represent the real face of the Arabs like some media has suggested. In a pop song, which is meant to be entertaining and fun, it would be probably inappropriate to display the cultural and social achievements of the Arabs in different fields. So the side that was chosen to be represented is the side that has to do with partying and fashion which is adequate when you are a member of the pop culture community. Although it may sound superficial to some, it is supposed to make us look more appealing to the West by showing that we endorse that type of ‘culture.’ You cannot follow these trends and be a terrorist or a close minded person because they are a representation of a deeper matter, the one of tolerance and openness. (emphasis mine)
Umm, make us seem more appealing? But who said “they” are all like ‘that?’
My biggest problem with this music video is not the gratuitous amounts of flesh on show by the scantily clad women–which let’s face it, has become the norm in many similar Arabic music videos–but the political implications of Choueiri’s message. Because if not a parody, then the video is certainly a textbook case of cultural appropriation. Listening between the lines, you could well take home the message: the only way we can prove we are not evil is if we try to erase our identities and emulate selective (read: the most materialistic) aspects of Western culture.
Choueiri’s only concessions to Arab culture: bellydancing and shisha smoking, of course! Nothing else we have “over here” is worth anything anyway. The orientalist image is complete once an x-ray machine shows us that a woman is carrying on her person handcuffs, a mask, and a whip. Arabs are all hypersexual, doncha know?
Some people have applauded Choueiri for trying to highlight different types of Arabs. Others have blasted him for portraying Arabs this way. Others shoot him down for the lukewarm lyrics and music—there’s even a dreadlock-sporting rapper who pops up throughout the track, perhaps aimed at upping Choueiri’s street cred.
I agree with the message of the music video: Arabs are not all terrorists. Duh. It’s a message we have to constantly emphasis and a stereotype we have to dispel. But the substitute image Choueiri is hawking is perhaps just as a bad–substituting one extreme for another is never a good thing. As a friend of mine said:
The benevolent Jad is dispelling the bomber stereotype by replacing it with the harem stereotype, the rich-Arab-with-money-to-burn stereotype, and the inferior-Arab-grovelling-for-western-approval stereotype. Right on, Jad.
This is an edited version of the original article which appeared in Egypt Today.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Kandeezie wrote:
Oh good god! I couldn’t even finish the video. The same reaction I have to any over-the-top sexed up video.
I love how the West/US is the main authority to people’s identity, and that they have to present to this Western authority a proposed alternative view in hopes that they will be represented fairly. It’s understandable seeing as narrow world views are used to justify aggression. It’s just sad. For all of us.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 8:45 am ¶
merq wrote:
I find it hard to believe this is anything more than a propaganda video for the Dubai board of tourism.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 9:13 am ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
Seems like they have bought the Western media/societal canard that the only “good Arabs” are those who imitate Western culture.
The “bad Arabs” are those who practice their religion and have respect for their own culture.
It is interesting how you note that there isnt any “funny stuff” between the men and women in the video. There is a good reason for this. “Funny Stuff” can get videos banned in some countries in the Middle East. Egypt is well known for this, never mind the fact that some video channels wont play videos that are too racey.
So the video sobs that we are “good Arabs” because they are just as nasty as they think the West is, but holds back so as not to get banned by governments and TV channels.
It would seem the entire video is based on two stereotypes, that the only good Arabs are those that act like the West, and then the stereotype held by many in the Middle East of what exactly what the West is really like.
I have seen this many times before, Arabs wanting to be “as nasty as they want to be” to try and prove how progressive and Western they are.
Sad so many people are buying into so many stereotypes.
Besides, his voice isnt even that good. Give me ‘Amr Diab any day over this guy!
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 9:20 am ¶
Fiqah wrote:
Wow. So lemme get this straight: I’m not supposed to read this video as ironic? Because homeboy is serious? Camels, implants, full-body wax jobs, and a (*SMH*) disclaimer…but don’t laugh because he’s SERIOUS? Wow.
Put down that cup of Kanye Kool-Aid.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 9:29 am ¶
Sara wrote:
i saw this over at muslima media watch last week, its another example of the only way people of a different colour skin or background can be tolerated is if they have the same values as us which, according to this video is degrading women and being douchebags. ugh.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 9:34 am ¶
Xey wrote:
I still have not seen the video since videos can’t stream on my computer at work. But I get the general gist of this. And it’s pretty disgusting. I took a class on “The Rhetoric of Hip-Hop” when I was in undergrad, and this reminds me of it in some ways. We’d always talk about rap videos being sort of “homo-erotic” with all the shirtless men who are both tatted and greased up. And they’re always with “their boys” and everything was about “their boys.” Gross. My image could be wrong, but I don’t think I want to see the video, the more I think about it.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 10:32 am ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
How does this promote better images of Muslims? I know not all Arabs are Muslims and I don’t know the religion of this artist. But it seems to me that promoting alcohol and excess does nothing to help Westerners understand and get over their angst toward Islam.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 10:50 am ¶
Niki wrote:
I couldn’t even get through the whole video either. I was thinking “This has to be some kind of joke”–I was halfway expecting Andy Samberg & Justin Timberlake to shimmy across the screen at any moment. Way to be progressive. NOT.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 11:11 am ¶
RCHOUDH wrote:
I’ve cross posted this from MMW:
I’ve already seen a bunch of amateur Youtube videos depicting “the real Arabs”, “the real Iraqis”, “the real Afghans”, etc. 99% of these YT videos depict scantily clad “real” women as representatives of their culture.
The first video I ever saw was actually titled “the real Arabs” and it depicted photos of a bunch of Lebanese pop stars. Alot of commenters (who I assume were Arab) sneered that showing the Lebanese to be “the real Arabs” undermined the fact that not all Arabs are light skinned and “European looking”.
I don’t know if these filmmakers intend for their videos to be taken seriously or not. I mean do they really expect others (namely Westerners) to believe that the majority of Arabs/Muslims behave just like Westerners?? Most people I know don’t seriously believe that to be the case. So most of these videos actually wind up attracting either pervs (”whoa is that how they look under them burkas?”) or haters (”psssht them Muslim women aren’t hot like that!”), which you know means very few care to see how “cool” you are being a Western wannabe.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 12:07 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
Okay, I tried to watch this on MMW and couldn’t. I made it through here and if you don’t tell me it’s a joke I am suing you for causing emotional damage as well as inducing physical pain. The video should have came with a dangerous to health warning. It just has to be. I mean, they must know the image they portray is also a stereotype for one thing, just the other half of a dichotomy. Also, the obviously fake beach scene, oh please. And was it implied at one point he was getting a cavity search by a woman in a leatherperson type police hat or were the pained expressions supposedly from the tattoo? And someone involved was named Logic? As in logically this is garbage…I’m gonna go have a beverage.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 12:19 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
Hm. I have a couple of reactions here, in no particular order:
1) This is a song by a Lebanese Pop singer and Lebanon IS westernized. Some of that is due to colonization by the French but Lebanon has a loooong pre-colonial history as a cosmopolitan center since the ancient world. In our contemporary moment, Beirut has been reduced to rubble by US and Israeli imperialism twice, so its Western image is tied to the struggle for a free Palestine, but the image of Lebanon as an international (and therefore more secular, with all of the stuff that goes along with that) place persists in the Arab world. Many Lebanese pop singers are famous throughout the Arab world for portraying a more Westernized version of sex and beauty and they are paradoxically disapproved of and celebrated for it.
2) The subtext of the video and the objections to it–which is mostly invisible to a Western audience–is the tension between Lebanese Christians and Muslims. Despite being a minority, Christians ran Lebanon and Lebanese culture reflects that. And like Italy, which is also run by Catholics, there is a cultural preoccupation with sensuality, beauty (both feminine and masculine), love and temporal pleasure in Lebanese culture. And, like our neighbors on the Western side of the Mediterranean, the Lebanese also have little gift for government… preferring to drink coffee and watch girls walk down the street. I am saying this with a smile on my face, because these are my people. Israeli aggression, which has pushed Palestinian refugees across the border and led to the political ascension of Hezbollah in Lebanon, has created a shift in Lebanon wherein it is increasingly characterized by the contentious relationship of its Muslim population toward Israel. While many Maronites (like me) are sympathetic to the Palestinians and Islam in general, many blame them for ruining the country. Just to be clear: this is not an attitude I espouse, or excuse–but I do think it is an underlying factor in this silly pop song.
Jad Shwery (and I’m gonna guess everyone else in this video) are Christians. Shwery is a Maronite Catholic–like me. According to his website he attended private French Schools in Lebanon and the Sorbonne in Paris so he is presumably, like many upper middle class Lebanese Catholics, on friendlier terms with the colonial (ie Western) elements of Lebanese culture than Lebanese Muslims might be.
So, while I understand what Abu Sinan is saying, I’d argue Shwery IS representing an element of his culture, for better or worse. The major flaw here is that he is totalizing that
Also, there are definitely Arabs who look and act just like this in the Middle East… and the West. My first thought when I saw this video was that it looked less like a wild Dubai consumer orgy than an Arab night at a tacky Brooklyn dance club. (I am saying that with a smile too, FYI.)
3) The folks in the video are silly, but also ridiculously hot and that makes me happy. Maybe that is pathetic, but we are so often portrayed as ugly and crazy that part of me likes seeing this, I admit it.
4) Arab Pop music–like its European analogues (again I would refer you to the Italians)– is sooo corny. These beats are at least five years out of date. And it will take some enterprising ethno-racist about five seconds to make the Funky = bad-smelling analogy. Sigh.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 12:39 pm ¶
luckyfatima wrote:
Gah! ow ouch! why spread this around??? bury it! for shame!
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 1:47 pm ¶
Wren wrote:
Xey, could we please cut out the homophobic remarks?
The “disgusting” “homo-erotic” video sounds “gross”. Really? Do we have to combat one prejudice with another?
…and back to the real topic…
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 2:40 pm ¶
Kendra wrote:
@ Abu Sinan
Thank you! I’ve been listening to “Tamally Maak” since I was in middle school. I didn’t know until today that this was one of ‘Amr Diab’s songs. Definitely agree with you, I could listen to ‘Amr Diab all day. This guy . . . couldn’t even stand a half-second of his voice.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 2:56 pm ¶
Xey wrote:
@Wren
I didn’t intend it in a homophobic manner at all, and I apologize if it came out that way. I was just thinking back to a lot of what we discussed in that class I took. We always discussed it because of the constant homophobia that eas expressed in rap music, but the also constant stereotypical “homo-erotic” images that would appear in the videos. For all of us (the students), we thought is was hypocritical. I can’t see the video myself, but from the descriptions I read (i.e. – the “funk”), it seems to demonstrate that same image, although there’s not necessarily any homophobia that directly exists in Arabic music. Again, sorry if the comments seemed homophobic. I didn’t mean it that way!
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 4:02 pm ¶
Louise wrote:
I’m not Arab but i just died of embarassment!! The video looked forced and contrived i do not believe that is how the “average” arab person of that genration behaves. Nor do i think the average arab of that age is a sucide bomber, way to insult my intelligence!!!
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 5:06 pm ¶
Safiya Outlines wrote:
The worst thing is that the song is so dreadful.
Panjabi MC and Tarkan, both had massive hits with songs that were firmly rooted in their respective cultures, but both sangs were good.
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 8:40 pm ¶
Sobia wrote:
@ Joseph:
Thanks for all that info. That makes a lot of sense. Really puts things in perspective!
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 9:40 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
I have to bite:
@ Joseph: What makes them ridicously hot?
Posted 18 Jun 2009 at 11:24 pm ¶
BSK wrote:
Taking this a different direction, which is unlikely given the response from Jad’s group, but maybe, just maybe…
…this is a call out to Arabs?
(A disclaimer: what I’m about to say is IN NO WAY generalized towards Arabs, but simply is addressing how *some* Arabs feel about the west)
There are Arabs who denounce American culture because of how focus on many of the things that Jad highlights. Perhaps his video is saying, “Hey, we’re just as ‘guilty’ as this as they are. This is right here in our own culture already.” I dunno, maybe I’m reaching. As stated, given the way his own team has talked about it, I would assume this was not an intent. But, could it be used in that way regardless? Obviously, an easy counter-argument is that these things are only present in Arab culture now because Western culture infected it, but regardless, part of me hopes maybe there was a little bit more going on here than simply preening for the Western cameras?
Posted 19 Jun 2009 at 12:06 am ¶
Medusa wrote:
I can’t watch the video, but I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten the idea. What the hell? This is necessary to show that Arabs aren’t all terrorists? No shit, Arabs aren’t even all Muslims! Not that Muslims are automatically terrorists, but the thinking in the West seems to be Arab=Muslim=terrorist.
Joseph-I appreciate your reactions. Although, from my perspective (and I defer to you, as you’re the one who’s Arab and has been subject to these particular stereotypes) it seems to me that Arab women are always either 1 of 2 extremes-the oppressed burkha-wearers, or the sexy exotic temptress. Maybe not so for the men, as i usually see them portrayed as terrorists.
* Mild Spoiler Alert: I recently watched the season finale of Lie to Me, and was glad to see that they had positive portrayals of Muslim Arab Americans. The one stereotypical character turned out to not be American, and I suppose that is another can of worms. (i.e., Arabs are only good if they’re American! The ones from the middle east are the bad suicide bomber terrorists!!)
Posted 19 Jun 2009 at 12:13 pm ¶
Melanie wrote:
Orientalism at worst, tacky misogyny at best.
Posted 19 Jun 2009 at 5:41 pm ¶
RCHOUDH wrote:
@ Joseph
Interesting that you mention that. Since I didn’t watch the video I’m wondering if Jad makes it clear that this video represents Christian Arabs (I’m leaning towards no because Jad’s work doesn’t seem that deep). If he did make that clear I think it would go a long way towards showing the West that Arabs are not a monolithic group and that Arabs and Muslims cannot be conflated with each other. Of course the other problem remains, which is that the video seems to be groveling for Western attention (see we can party hard too!) I know it’s not meant to be deep but again I think it would’ve been better for the video to show aspects of Arab culture (Lebanese Christian culture in this case) that are unique and special to that culture. Thanks for pointing out who Jad is BTW. Sometimes even I tend to forget that Arab nonMuslims exist.
Posted 19 Jun 2009 at 7:08 pm ¶
sandeep wrote:
i actually see this as a good thing. brown artists trying to break barriers, which lets honest, DO exist, in our entertainment industry. where exactly does asia fit into the white / black tailored music genres. it doesnt. fitting in is exactly whats necessary for success in today’s music biz. if you don’t like it, make efforts to reform the system. in the meantime, i see nothing different here than your typical rapper in the states trying to make the mixtape rounds hoping for the big break.
Posted 20 Jun 2009 at 1:14 pm ¶
Brothel Poet wrote:
Silly. I think a lot of the aggression and mysoginy in black rap videos are an expression of an anger and frustration that stems from our political and social disenfranchisement. My brother and I were talking about how back in the eighties early nineties, Public Enemy came out with “protest rap.” Also folks were rediscovering Malcolm X. The anger in music was palpable political and directed in my mind- at the right source. However, the music industry fondled over and encouraged other kinds of groups because these m-effers KNOW WHAT THEY’RE DOING. The “powers that be” know how to keep the masses in self strangulation mode and make money off of us at the same time.So political anger by blacks who are consistently disenfranchised gets CHANNELED and REDIRECTED back upon themselves. The rage at oppression is still magnetic and recognizable to us folks who don’t have a microphone, and that is why we respond to it. Consciously it might seem like we are responding to bling and writhing spandexed bodies, but I think subconsciously, we are finding an outlet for the rage we feel as black folks every day dealing with stuff- Barrack or no Barrack.
So when you see pumped up brothers in videos it ain about no homo erotic nothing. It’s about reframing oneself from victim to warrior. If it wasn’t so easy through money and marketing to manipulate black people there would have been revolution in this country a long time ago. When some young mother names her daughter a name that doesn’t run along the lines of Suzy and Bill, she is “calling back” to a home that has been forgotten and a culture that has been suppressed. When I was coming up, black folks were taught to hate Africa, but they still maintained the echo of their African past a desire to define oneself in defiance of white cultural hegemony in names like Cheniqua etc. Aisha is actually a Muslim or Arab name and many Africans were Muslim who came over on the slave ships.
As for this music video, it does not even have the appeal of the ANGER that fuels the most criminal minded and mysoginistic black rap video. Which I almost prefer to what I see in this video. I prefer in black rap videos the subversive defiance of the mainstream cuz I recognize what’s really going on. ‘Black folks at least saying “look at me, full out in my manhood, mysexuality, my menace and my anger.” Shoot- black fokls- men in particular were not even allowed to have THAT in my parents day. ,This video sadly lacks even that assertion. The crazy ass negroes in rap videos are at least, in their nihilisitic fashion, saying they are men.
I mean, Jad’s video has a sweetness to it, so I am not completely dissing it. It feels like very young people trying very hard and there is something really vulnerable in it so I don’t actually hate it.
Jad’s video needs something else- something more… celebratory than this sad little number. Something more defiant than I am not what you see on the BBC. He needs to shame us into ever buying into that mess in the first place. He needs to point out the irony of those stereotypes as countries like the US engages in subversive political and violent acts and their own form of terrorism all the time. Yeah, put those wriggling bodies in the music video but make them powerful. Rap comes ultimately from African traditions of dance and music that the West could never really understand. White people made minstrel shows mocking the black dancing they saw on the plantations and Congo Squre. And black people never cared. Even if white folks didn’t get it, black people continued on with their traditions and music and soul as much as they could. We knew what sustained us, even if our differences were used to mock us by a bunch of rhythmless oppressors who just couldn’t get the hang of that thang. Until Elvis came along. Which is why he is a god among white people to this day. That’s why rap music holds our imaginations despite the degradations attached. Look, black women cornrowed their hair, black men loved our big butts no matter how many times Farrah Fawcett beamed at us thru the tv. Despite what we been through we still love ourselves. And white folks and the rest of the world couldn’t take it out of us- they joined us, even if the music industry encouraged the worst forms of degradation and black folks wilingly partcipated.
Jad’s video seems pandering. I mean, Arab people are to me anyway, generally very beautiful. . The blond woman, howeever, looked gross to me, just repulsive. Don’t know why- could have been that I think the natural hair color of the Arab woman is beautiful. He could have found a way to use the pulsating beats, the beauty of his people, the traditions and culture to really break down the bs surrounding the propaganda against Arab culture. He could have celebrated Arab dance, music culture and sexuality in a really interesting and clever way. In the opening of the Spike Lee film, Do The Right Thing- Rosie Perez dances furiously to P.E.’s Fight The Power in silhouette. She is curvy, wearing shorts, decidedly female- nothing “respectable” or “demure” about her or it. B ut I felt empowered by the booty shaking in that clip. I felt like my soul, my body and my rhythm was this powerful act of self owner ship and defiance that deviated from any Western/Judae/christian ideas of femininity. I felt pure when I watched that, sanctified. There is way to combine booty shaking and sexuality with defiance, authenticity and self. Hopefuly one day Jad will find it.
Posted 22 Jun 2009 at 1:54 pm ¶