Ali Dayoub

Dabkat

• Mdallal (Spoiled) Arab Dabke
• Weil Hali (Oh My!)

• Shftek Ya Jafleh (I Saw You, Jafleh)
• Al Nob Al Nob

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This cassette documents a wedding celebration performed by Hama-born singer Ali Dayoub in 2000, performing Syrian shaabi classics such as Mdaldal (Spoiled) with which he opens his performance, modifying its lyrics to distribute greetings to the wedding attendees. The greetings take up nearly as much time as the singing on the cassette, with many directed at leaders of the now-deposed Syrian regime - a ritual that many Syrian shaabi singers found inescapable to perform. Ali Dayoub rose in the Syrian shaabi music scene alongside the emergence and rise of the keyboard, establishing his colorful singing style based on accompanying flashy and loud keyboard lines, collaborating with many of Syria's prominent keyboard players, including Talal Al Da'our. He reached the peak of his fame during the period when the keyboard entered Syrian shaabi music, between the latter half of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, when he performed numerous private events and wedding celebrations across Syria and Lebanon.