Word: singer
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Yeah, she's a singer--and a good-lookin' chick...
...folded notes and flowers. One Jordanian dentist even offered to clean his teeth for free. In Yusuf's home base of Cairo, he can no longer walk down the street unmolested. "The attachment people have to Sami is beyond celebrity," observes Sharif Hasan al-Banna, co-founder of the singer's Awakening Records music label. "People are always coming up to him or writing him to say 'Your music inspired us, your music changed us.'" In many ways, it is his commitment to defending Arab and Muslim causes through his music that heartens youth who are discouraged by their sense...
...Despite the Beatle-like frenzy that sweeps crowds at his concerts, a closer look reveals that Yusuf is a different kind of pop singer. His boy-band good looks are framed by the close-cropped beard of an observant Muslim. He sings about God's love, never romantic love. His backup singers are all men. His screaming fans include not just star-struck young women in head scarves, but teenage boys in blue jeans and gelled hair, old men in traditional Arab robes, and middle-aged moms bouncing toddlers on their knees...
...tone in the region, heard whenever cell phones go off in cabs and cafes from Cairo to Damascus. But the real sensation is Yusuf's slickly produced, MTV-style music videos, which consistently register as the top most-requested on Middle Eastern music TV channels. The videos depict the singer as a model Muslim citizen who visits the mosque, tends to his aging parents, interacts comfortably with his British colleagues at a fictional London office, and still manages to come across as cool...
...listen to it like any pop song, but the lyrics are different, more meaningful," says Falah Hannoun, 25, who attended the Amman concert sporting a trim beard and wire-rim glasses. "You feel closer to God and your religion." Bara Kherigi, Yusuf's childhood friend and lyricist, believes the singer strikes a chord with young Muslims who do not feel represented by the offerings in the mainstream media. "They see singers, male or female, just dancing, living the high life, and that's not them," Kherigi explains. "Or they see some clip of Bin Laden preaching to them and speaking...