Sohair, Nawal | My Heart, Mon Ammour (Sono Cairo, 1966)

 

Here's a fun little guitar-forward record from 1966 in Arabic, English, and French. The two tracks here are similar in theme and sound (music by Egyptian composer Taha al-Ugayl), but sung in different languages. "My Heart" ("Qalbi") is a mashup of English and Arabic and sung by the mysterious Sohair; "Mon Ammour [sic]" ("Habibi") is in French and sung by the also mysterious Nawal.

Let's start with Sohair. This could be Egyptian 60s-70s singer Soheir Hishmat, Egyptian actress and dancer Soheir Zaki, an equally mysterious singer Suhayr Khalil, or Egyptian actress Soheir al-Baroudi. My money's on Hishmat, but you'd be a fool a trust me on these matters.

Nawal is most likely Egyptian singer Nawal Ali, but could possibly be Lebanese singer Nawal Badr.

Anyone with any information on this foot-stompin' 7", drop us a comment! Meanwhile, let's hear the two tracks:

(Listen to "My Heart")

(Listen to "Mon Ammour")