- Aug 27, 2014
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Syrian-Swedish Syriac singer Faya Younan performed a medley consisting of a Syriac song and an Arabic song in Algerian dialect during a concert held in the city of Alala in Saudi Arabia recently, in a winter concert held in Miraya Theater on November 19th:
I'm not entirely sure, but this was presented in the Syriac Christianity group I'm a part of on FB as though it was a historic occasion, so this might be the first time Syriac music has been performed in public in the kingdom. It is also not clear to me the singer's confessional identity, as the YT video I've linked here says that she comes from a Chaldean family (the Chaldean Catholics being Iraqis of Nestorian heritage), but here she's singing in Western Syriac dialect, not Eastern as the Chaldeans do. (Though it is definitely possible to do both, since their dialectical differences are pretty regular and predictable, or for that matter to have such 'mismatches' between what is usually the case and what is actually the case on the ground. In the autocephalous Malankara Orthodox Church in India, for instance, while they follow the Syriac Orthodox liturgy, many still use the East Syrian/'Nestorian' pronunciation, as the Nestorians were historically a very large contingent of India's Syrian Christian population, though that is very much not the case now.)
Anyway, so this might belong in one of the Catholic forums too, I dunno. I just thought it was really neat to see another sign of the Saudis opening up (however carefully and slowly) to the presence of a non-Arab, non-Muslim minority and its culture on their soil, even if it's just for a concert. Baby steps, y'know? And Mrs. Younan's voice is quite nice, and her manners quite charming, like in the beginning when she is instructing the crowd about the Syriac language and how to interact with the song.
I'm not entirely sure, but this was presented in the Syriac Christianity group I'm a part of on FB as though it was a historic occasion, so this might be the first time Syriac music has been performed in public in the kingdom. It is also not clear to me the singer's confessional identity, as the YT video I've linked here says that she comes from a Chaldean family (the Chaldean Catholics being Iraqis of Nestorian heritage), but here she's singing in Western Syriac dialect, not Eastern as the Chaldeans do. (Though it is definitely possible to do both, since their dialectical differences are pretty regular and predictable, or for that matter to have such 'mismatches' between what is usually the case and what is actually the case on the ground. In the autocephalous Malankara Orthodox Church in India, for instance, while they follow the Syriac Orthodox liturgy, many still use the East Syrian/'Nestorian' pronunciation, as the Nestorians were historically a very large contingent of India's Syrian Christian population, though that is very much not the case now.)
Anyway, so this might belong in one of the Catholic forums too, I dunno. I just thought it was really neat to see another sign of the Saudis opening up (however carefully and slowly) to the presence of a non-Arab, non-Muslim minority and its culture on their soil, even if it's just for a concert. Baby steps, y'know? And Mrs. Younan's voice is quite nice, and her manners quite charming, like in the beginning when she is instructing the crowd about the Syriac language and how to interact with the song.
