Emirati pop star Ruweida Al Mahrouqi talks to Saeed Saeed about performing in front of her home crowd and how she deals with the critics
It’s one thing to be excited to play in an international music festival, it’s quite another when the event is not only in your country but your home city.
For the Emirati Ruweida Al Mahrouqi, she is counting the days until stepping onto the Corniche for Beats on the Beach.
“I live in Abu Dhabi so it is an amazing opportunity to be here, generally,” she says. “But to be part of an international event such as this ... at the beginning I was worried because I am playing to a different crowd who may not know Arabic, but that’s what makes it exciting for me – the chance to reach out to a new audience.”
There is a good chance Al Mahrouqi can nab herself a few new fans on Friday night – she is one of the rare Emirati pop stars truly blending local music with western pop beats.
Over the course of five albums, she managed to demonstrate that the Emirati dialect is at home among the oud and Khaleeji percussion as dance beats.
Al Mahrouqi says she never set out to play pop music; instead, she has always been interested in fusing Emirati music with regional and western styles.
Ironically, this way one can easily pick out and appreciate the musical qualities from each culture.
“You can really hear in the songs the different Arabic accents – the oud, the drums and some of the traditional elements of Arabic music,” she says.
“Then I just add a bit of the sounds that people are also listening to today and mix it up.”
Al Mahrouqi’s eclectic tastes stem from her personal experiences. Born in Abu Dhabi, she began playing the piano competitively at the age of 6 before travelling to Lebanon to study film and theatre directing at the American University of Beirut.
While there in 1996, she decided, on a whim, to audition for the famed Arab talent show Studio El Fan.
Al Mahrouqi remembers waiting in line and watching contestants appear on stage only to receive caustic remarks from the Arab world’s first Simon Cowell, the famed Lebanese producer Simon Asmar.
“These girls sounded absolutely perfect to me,” she says. “But Simon told them to stop and come back to the show four years later when they were better prepared.”
Al Mahrouqi's immense vocal range on the classic Fairouz song Aatini Al Nay Wa Ghanni impressed the surly judge, who invited her to join the programme. She ended up coming second in the Tarab (classical Arab music) category.
Despite the demand for more conservative song choices, Al Mahrouqi chose to explore more western styles in her 2002 debut album Akher Hob. What began as a dedicated fan base grew to regional fame by the time her fourth album, 2008's Mahri Ghali, was released.
Despite being one of the few Emirati singers commanding a regional fan base, Al Mahrouqi says she suffers from a shortage of support at home. She says her success spawned a backlash from fellow locals who feel her success somehow cheapened the standing of Emirati music.
“From my first album they called me a sell-out and that I have lost my culture,” she says. “They criticised the way I dressed. I mean, I am singing pop music and I can’t do that in traditional clothes.”
Al Mahrouqi counters her critics by stating that her music merely reflects the UAE’s emergence as a leading cosmopolitan society.
“The funny thing is, when such people hear music from singers outside the country, they absolutely love them and they say it’s amazing. But they somehow don’t show that same feeling when we do it,” she says. “At the end of the day, it is good music and it is supposed to be fun.”
• Ruweida Al Mahrouqi performs at Beats on the Beach on Friday, West Plaza and Lagoon Beach. Visit www.yasalam.ae
