Author: Mary Victor

Bèro and Bassem are Vancouver based musicians. Bèro plays the Oud and Bassem plays the piano. Bèro and Bassem play a mix of jazz standards, Arabic folk and pop music in addition to some of Bassem’s originals.

Bèro and Bassem’s music encompasses three distinct types:

• Western meets Arabic. This broad western category includes jazz standards and adult contemporary with an Arabic influence. Their repertoire includes Sway, Autumn leaves, Besame Mucho and more.
• Arabic with a Jazz twist. This local Arabic music with a distinctive Jazz twist. They perform infamous Arabic music for the classical singers Umm Kulthum and Fairuz (best selling Middle-Eastern Artists), folk music by Sayed Darwish (considered father of Egyptian pop) and contemporary music such as Amr Diab’s. Their repertoire includes songs like tel’et ya mahla nourha, rag’een ya hawa and Zorony kol sanna marra.
• Bassem’s originals. The third type of music is Bassem’s original music that fuses Arabic pop and jazz. Favourite songs include la mesh hasibak la (no I will not forsake you), Ana as’ad wahed fel Donia (I’m the happiest man on earth, his wedding song), and Ana Ha’dar asbor (yes, I can wait). Some of Bassem’s originals have been performed with a more Arabic pop interpretation such as his wedding song.

Below are some of our popular performances.

HAVANA

TEL’ET YA MAHLA NOURHA (طلعت يا محلا نورها)

Tel’et ya mahla nourha was composed by Sayed Darwish (considered Father of Egyptian pop) at the start of 1900s. Here is a link to one of the early performances of the original song.

I’M THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH (أنا أسعد واحد في الدنيا )

Bassem wrote this song for Mary, his bride, on their wedding day. This is a link to the live (sung) performance.

RAJ’IEN YA HAWA راجعين يا هوى

Music by Rahbani Brothers. It was first released in 1974 by and sung by Fairouz.

–>