Habibi Ya Nour El Ein

Amr Diab is the most popular Arab singer in my non-Arabic speakers network. I don’t know how they discover him but it seems his songs have crossed the boundaries of the Arab world.

When people talk about him and want to listen to one of his songs, or when I want to to introduce a non-Arabic speaker to Arabic pop music, I always start with “Habibi Ya Nour El Ein”. It means “O Darling the light of my eyes”.

In retrospect I think it has the best of both worlds. It has the word “Habibi” which any non-Arabic speaker probably knows. And it has a western melody that westerners can connect to easily.

I once argued that in every major European city there will be a restaurant or Shisha bar called “Habibi”. I did this search and no city failed to return a “Habibi”. Including the most fancy places like Zurich.

ِAs for the melody, there is no use of the Arabic drum, Oud, or the Qanun. I once played it for Spanish speakers they said it is close to their melodies.

You can watch it below, and I found a good English translation of the lyrics. Enjoy.