Baya al Ward (song)

Baya al Ward is a love-ballad written by Elias Naher for Amal Hijazi's album of the same name. The song was a blockbuster hit and was produced by Rotana. It was charted strongly throughout the Arab world and gained critical acclaim from both fans and critics alike. On the other hand, it was criticized for its unusual music video. Hijazi got on a completely different look in the video with her short hair and "wild" looks.

Track Information

The song is a take on a woman whose relationship has ended with her lover. Amal Hijazi plays the woman in the song. Downhearted and completely miserable, at the start of the video, Hijazi is seen in the washroom cutting beautuful strips of her beautiful white-blond hair with a pair of scissors. She faces the camera (showing on her lips moving on the first part) and so the song begins. After cutting her hair up till the neck, she wears her jacket and races downstairs.

Hijazi drinks tea and then bends down her blue convertible and smokes and then leaves off in her car, driving up a long and straight road. She drives, as if in a dream. Her lover's broken promise appears in a thorny plant that ravages her body as she drives, until her car crashes into a lone leafless tree by a lake at the edge of a mountain. And there, under the vast smoggy sky, she wakes up, blood on her thirsty lips. Finally, Hijazi, takes the wet path towards the lake.

Critical response

The song was considered a huge success throughout the Arab World and the video for was heavily played on the radio and on Rotana record channels, and was praised for its immense originality, lyric quiality, and artistic shorts. The song topped charts and became one of the greatest hits of 2006 and probably one of the most famous love-ballads ever.

Critics pointed out that there were some "slutty" gestures behind the video in which Hijazi licks up her upper lip while drinking tea, bending down her car and smoking and licking her finger.

The song was however a huge success for Hijazi.