Customer Reviews

Bellydance Superstars 1

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Hi,

I've been belly dancing for about three years, and I have had a couple of performances.

I really enjoy this CD. The songs are fast paced and fun to dance, to. Probably because they have a simpler composition than some of the more old-fashioned music that I have heard.

If you are fit, and a reasonably good dancer, you will find these songs very peppy and fun to perform to--both for yourself and the audience.

The only shortcoming is that since most of the songs have so much percussion, they might tempt the dancer to slack off on the graceful upper body movements that make a good dance a great one.

I recommend this album for:

Working Out - Good accompaniment for a class or a private belly dance practice.

Performance - These popular, catchy songs (ok, they're kind of old now :)) can add perk to your routine if you are fit and have a high enough energy to do them justice.


I enjoy this album, and recommend it for any dancer.

Let's see.. the title of this album, "bellydance superstars". That's debatable, and of course it depends on the style that you prefer. I have a different list of superstars every year, it always changes, and the superstars on this album definitely are of the American style rather than, well, Egyptian, or Turkish, or whatever, but one thing nobody can take away from them - they're amazing dancers, most, and they have great following in the western world.

The music . When I buy a compilation CD, it is because I want to be exposed to different types of music that I haven't heard yet, and this CD definitely delivers. I was already a fan of Hakim (for review's sake - pop Egyptian, the "Lion of Egypt", very danceable and fun - will get the audience dancing in your shows), Amr Diab - another pop artist that's very popular, Warda (sophisticated, lovely music - especially the track chosen - Bitwanees Beek - which is a must for your collection), with Mohammed Abdel Wahab - one of the classics of Arabic music... etc etc.

[ Actually, reading some of the reviews by some self-professed knowitalls "real arab women" who gave this album 0 stars - how could you??! Warda, Abdel Wahab, and Hakim are not pleasing to you?! Then what is? ]

Other songs include :
Sahra Saidi - a high-energy drum solo that sounded very familiar to me, definitely great to show off your isolations.

Ice Queen - I haven't heard this one before, it is interesting, it is an entrance song, extremly high energy, definitely not traditional but it keeps the traditional format of the intro songs (including the break of beledi in the middle and then the taksim). I've used it successfully (I think) in a more theatrical setting where I wanted to grab the audience from the beginning . Like putting on a serious face before letting them in the joke :)

Raks Africa - the opening song, not my favorite for bellydance, but it was interesting, maybe later I'll change my mind.

Chicky - hah. Very funny song. Actual lyrics: "Listen to the chickichika boom boom". It's good to have this one on hand if one day I feel very, VERY silly. Or maybe not.

One fault I find with this CD - for my own sake - it is that it's not experimental enough - it didn't have enough songs that I didn't know. If you've been dancing for a while, you already know most of the songs. Should have paid more attention to the list...

cheers,
ioana

I had this CD for a long time, I listened to it occacionly for it is tryly attractive to ears. But since I went to the performance of Bellydance Superstars last night, I couldn't take it out of my CD player !!
Everysong now has the image of the bellydancer who danced with the title she selected in the album. And now I can understand why they are chooising these songs -- for different dancer has her personal charicteristic. Some are wild and passionate, some are smooth and lovely. For example, Sonia's seclections are sexy because she is very sexy and cute while she dances. Ansuya's selections are wild for she always performs as a wild and suductive lioness. This complication is invicible !!

The only pity is the music that the newly joined Bellydancer Rachel Brice perfromed were not in this album for she just join the group this year. Her style is different, tranquil, meditative while mix tranditional bellydance with her fasicinating hand-tambourine playing. I hope her music selection will appear in the next album of Bellydance Superstars -- there should be have must be !!

I purchased this album about a year ago. I enjoyed six of the tracks (2,4,8,10,12,13) for awhile, ultimately deciding it wasn't a great album of middle eastern music, but that there were enough enjoyable tracks to make it a "keeper"...especially since the Mohamed Abdel Wahab pieces are not that easy to find on other collections w/o spending a lot of money (and the Hossam Ramzy album of his music is not one of Ramzy's better efforts IMO).

I happened upon this Amazon listing while browsing middle eastern albums, so I decided to see what other people thought of it. My god, such a disparity in reviews! Either five stars or one?! I try not to be too opinionated about such things (at least not as opinionated as most of the one star reviewers), but I confess that I do enjoy going through Amazon and debunking innaccurate, misleading, or seriously biased reviewing.

This is where I "pull rank." Sorry, "one star" reviewers; I probably own more middle eastern CD's than all of you combined, and this album just does not deserve the vitriol that you are hurling at it. A somewhat cheesy, typical American commericalized, album concept, to be sure; and some equally cheesy westernized techno-tinged songs, as well...but it just doesn't suck as bad as your "rip" reviews would indicate. It is my philosopy that there are very few albums that deserve one-star reviews, in the first place (and this one probably isn't worthy of so many five-star reviews either), but why don't you just give it two stars, say it wasn't what you expected--or that it was exactly the "crap" that you expected--and move on. I'm always a bit confused as to why some of these people even bothered to by the CD in the first place. It's fairly obvious from the album listing, and other reviews, what this album is. I am always puzzled by the strange practice, that some people seem to do, of buying an album expecting--or seemingly even hoping-- to hate it, to have some sort of world view of theirs confirmed. Why waste your time, energy, and money?

All you do is reveal your biases--perhaps even outright prejudices--with these kinds of reviews; and, more to the point, you come across like big time SNOBS! I don't see anywhere on this album where it indicates that this is supposed to be a wholly "authentic oriental" dance/music presentation. Is there some unwritten law that states that westerners can't add some of their own cultural flavor to this music...god/allah knows that plenty of "oriental" music composers have assimilated western elements into their music (the great composer, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, himself, for one).

I am generally pretty liberal, but when it comes to things like music, I tend to be a bit of a traditionalist myself; for example, I can't stomach most "world beat" and "trance music," which to me is the equivalent of the taking world music and putting a "disco beat" to it (as was the trend back in the seventies), but we must not let ourselves become allergic to all things "modern," or updated, as was the sarcastic reviewer that made the word "modern" synonymous with the word "crappy." Tradition is great, but clinging TOO hard to our traditions is one of the main source of much of the trouble in the world today...especially in the "Middle East."

As someone who was born and raised in the U.S., I have an aversion to many things about this country, too; especially all of the commercialism and consumerism inherent to such a capitalist society...but I really feel compassion for those of you who are Arabic and living in a country whose customs you seem to despise so much. Perhaps you should channel the passion reflected in your angry words, into your dancing and/or daily spiritual practice.

Bottom line: not a great album; but not "shockingly bad," "crappy," "garbage," "horrible," "unbelievably awful," or "terrible," either (although, as the person who called it "terrible," also indicated, it might actually be a bit "contrived"). Some things are simply a matter of personal taste, others are more of a matter of personal prejudice. When writing a review, at least try to have some degree of objectivity--or if you feel like you have to write, and you just can't be objective, at least come right out and reveal your bias--or your review really isn't very useful at all.

While I own tons of drumming CD's suitable for bellydance, when I finally moved from videos to taking professional bellydance classes I wanted some "real" bellydance music for practice at home. Out here in the boonies, this was one of three CD's that the store had in stock.

When I played the first track I was a little taken aback. It has lyrics! My instructor mainly uses instrumentals, so I was surprised but after just one listen to the whole CD, I was very pleased with my choice. I wasn't that familiar with Middle Eastern music and find that I love it. I actually listen to it in the car and it gets me and my static duster moving around the house!

The sixteen tracks on this CD offer a variety of beats and arrangements to suit any skill level or preference - and the songs are beautiful and upbeat. My top favorites are Shereen's "Ah Ya Leil" - she sings with such emotion! - and Oojami's "Chicky." My 22 year old son loves "Chicky" and thinks that it would be a great hit in the clubs with its great dance beat and hip-hop lyric style. There are also two wonderful drum solos on the album and tracks with orchestral arrangements suitable for veil or sword work and complex choreography. I've been able to practice the choreography we're working on in class at home with about half of the songs on this CD even though the instructor is using different music.

Whether you are in the mood for slow, sensuous bellydance or feel like bouncing ALL the coins off the belt, you'll find the right music on this CD. If you're just getting started with bellydance, this is a great start for your music collection.

As a teacher of Middle Eastern and other Dance Forms, I found this CD a DELIGHTFUL addition to my library. My classes were totally re-energized by this music! Yes, it's modern, and it's not for everyone, but it's not that pain level disco junk, either!

I love this CD, everytime I hear it, it makes me wanna move and it inspires me new movements and choreographies. Now I'm looking for another CD like this one, because I own a lot of bellydance CDs, but noone is like bellydance superstars! It's the first one with so fast modern music which makes you wanna dance all night and let your body vibrate in all kind of shimmies. This music is really exciting and will cheer you up everytime you listen to it. I keep playing it and I never get annoyed! I don't like writing reviews but this time I really felt I had to defend this CD. I don't quite understand the very bad review someone wrote here. I think music is a very subjective matter and everybody is free to like a CD or not but call this one 'garbage' I think is really too strong and unjustified.
For those who like to shake their belly and get lost in arabic vibrations...this is the CD for you

This music is American - Arabic fusion; even Arabic classics are remixed and given a modern - sometimes techno - beat, and an electronic feel which is very far away from what one associates with Middle Eastern music. It is true, nevertheless (as has been said by another reviewer) that American colonization of Arabic, Indian and African music is widespread and now even the people of these countries themselves tend to prefer the Americanized version of their own culture. I understood the whole concept one day in India, more than ten years ago, on a very very hot day, when I was grateful for my sandals and pure cotton loose Indian clothes, when I saw Indians parade happily in blue jeans and heavily padded sports shoes, although they must have been sweating like mad.
So... the fact that disco style and techno style is enjoyed by young Arabs is no excuse and no proof of those styles being Middle Eastern or representing Middle Eastern culture. Since this show was geared to Western audiences, Miles Copeland chose to minimize the "culture shock" and made something easily recognizable that the audiences would relate to. And, to make the pill go down even more easily, chose most of his dancers to be young, beautiful and thin, when there are great American oriental dance artists (excuse me, but I hate the word bellydance) who were not chosen because they are over 40 and a bit on the chubby side.

I understand that most Americans, who had no exposure at all to this foreign culture, welcome most readily the version nearer to what they already know. It's very natural, I'm not blaming them. And that's the reason for all those four and five star reviews we see here. They don't impress me, it was to be expected.

I don't want to use words like crap etc..., but surely most of these "things" don't deserve the appellation "music". For me music is something very different, which stirs something deep within. Even if it's funny and upbeat. But it has to be art. Otherwise I may call it.. hm, let's see... noise?
In my external hard drive, under the folder dedicated to Middle Eastern music, I have a subfolder called "Disco garbage selections". Meaning that whenever I have the time I must go through these albums and actually listen to some seconds of each of these tracks (given by a friend), to look whether there is some nice song to save, before deleting the whole bunch.

Before ending this: I'm not against fusion at all costs. I do listen to Hossam Ramzy once in a while, and I am a fan of Omar Faruk Tekbilek. But it has to be fusion of two things respecting the essence of both, not a rape of one by the other.

May I recommend:
"Rough guide to bellydance"
"Arabian masters, vol. 1, 2, 3"
"Aziza raqs - instrumentals"
O.F. Tekbilek "Best of the Sultans" and "Fire dance"
Exotic oriental bellydancing
Mimi Mc Donald "Gems of the Middle East" vol. 1, 2, 3
Bellydance Fifi Abdo "Middle Eastern Nights"
"Orient belly dance"
"Arabian traditional music" (beautiful!!!)
"Arabian traditional tacht ensemble" (beautiful!!!)
"Classical Egyptian music for Raqs Sharqi" (2 CDS) with The Layali El Sharq Ensemble
"Egyptian baladi live" with The Layali El Sharq Baladi Band

This is the perfect CD for those looking to get a varity of belly dance music with out spending too much. I would recommend it to beginners especially because they could get a feel for many types of dances/music and find what they like to listen to and dance to best.

this CD is a must have for bellydance superstar fans and for avid dancers like myself. It's a collection of the superstars' favorite tunes.