Ya Mustafa

"Ya Mustafa", also spelled "Ya Mustapha" (in Arabic يا مصطفى), is a famous Egyptian multilingual song of unclear origin, whose lyrics are composed in 3 different languages: Egyptian Arabic, French and Italian. There are also versions in the Greek ("Μουσταφά"), Turkish and Serbian ("Mustafa") languages, where they are very popular in the respective countries. There was also a Hindi version used in the soundtrack of a Bollywood film. The music of the song is influenced by Greek music. The song was very popular in the 1950s and early 1960s, but its popularity is revived with newer versions of the song

Content and style

The song, with its Greek style music and polyglot lyrics, can be considered as a historical tribute to the cosmopolitan era in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. During that era, a large cosmopolitan polyglot community, mainly Greeks, Jews and Italians, lived in Alexandria. A sizable portion lived in the Attarine district, where the events of the song take place.

Lyrics

The refrain of the song is "Chérie je t'aime, chérie je t'adore, como la salsa del pomodoro, يا مصطفي, يا مصطفي, أنا بحبك يا مصطفي" - French - "Honey , I love you, honey, I adore you", Italian - "like tomato sauce". Arabic - "Oh Mustafa, oh Mustafa, I love you oh Mustafa".

The song is a love song, a man is singing to a man. Besides the superlatives, he sings, in Arabic: I waited seven years for you, now the moment had come. Come drinking with me and have good time. And in French: When I saw you on the balcony of Maxim's place, you told me to come up-stars and not to care for any manners.

Versions

The song has been performed in many different versions by many different singers worldwide.

• One of the earliest singers to record this song in the 1950s was the Jewish-Turkish-French singer Dario Moreno.
• The song became popular in Europe with the help of the Egyptian-born Lebanese-Palestinian singer Bob Azzam, who released it in 1960 in France. Azzam's version was also a hit on the UK Singles Chart, where it spent 14 weeks and peaked at number 23.^[1]
• In Spain, in 1960, the song reached #1 in the charts in two versions sung by Bob Azzam and by José Guardiola.
• Bruno Gigliotti (also known as Orlando, the brother of the famous singer Dalida, and the founder of Orlando record label) also covered the song.
• Kyu Sakamoto also sang a version of this song in Japanese.
• In 1975, the Turkish Cypriot actress and singer Nil Burak sang "Ya Mustafa".
• The music was adapted by the Indian composers Nadeem-Shravan and appeared in the film Aatish starring Sanjay Dutt, Aditya Pancholi, Raveena Tandon, Karisma Kapoor. The vocals of Jolly Mukherjee, Mukul Aggarwal and Alka Yagnik were used for the song.
• The American singer and actress Angélica María made a recording in her album La Magia de Angélica María
• Other singers who have interpreted the songs include the Lebanese singer Reeda Boutros
• Catalan trumpeter Rudy Ventura covered the song in the early 60's as "Mustafà català".
• The influential British folk-blues guitarist Davy Graham covered the song instrumentally on his album Folk, Blues and Beyond (1964).
• It was played live by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in a BBC session but renamed "White Summer/Black Mountainside" (Led Zeppelin Remasters 1). Page's recording and acoustic style generally was heavily influenced by Davy Graham's work.
• Performed by Yugoslavian singer Djordje Marjanovic in Serbian in 1961 .
• Performed by Serbian vocalist Nenad Jovanovic in Serbian in 1977.

Appearances

The song featured in a few Egyptian movies, including one starring the Egyptian actor Ismail Yassin in the 1950s, and another film featuring Sabah from the same era. It is also used in the Indian film Aatish.

References