Yesterday was the start of Super Star II. And I’m so happy that I didn’t miss the start this year, as I only got to watch few episodes of the finals last year.
I loved watching every bit yesterday. It was wonderful. What I really loved about Super Star is being able to watch all participants the ones who pass and fail through all levels, and I find this so fair and exciting in the same time. We get to see every action, reaction, question, answer, behavior, and everything, it’s really fun, and it assures that there was no cheating of any kind. The ones who deserve passing are the ones who will pass.
And besides the competition and performance of participants, there are those funny tricks that are perfectly planned by the program producers to trick some of the program introducers or judges or the crowd. Plus the chance to enjoy the participants’ singing and dancing, before actually being tested, in an attempt to have fun, decrease the stress and fear, as well as to add some flavor to the long waiting.
In the first level only 83 participants pass to the second level. The testing was done in several places like Bahrain, Jordan, France, Lebanon, and Egypt. As for the participants they were of different Arabic nationalities.
Some of the participants have the talent and lack the beautiful voice, some have the beautiful voice but not the right performance, some have neither, lol, and some have both. So imagine how fun and exciting it was to watch different kinds of beautiful and annoying voices!
Up till now we’ve watched the first 13 participants who passed, and of course the ones who didn’t, but those who didn’t pass aren’t always bad, it’s just that they weren’t the best. Or maybe they’re pretty good but were unfortunately sick on the day of the performance.
Anyway, up till now the 13 lucky ones include Lebanese, Palestinian, Tunisian, Moroccan, Kuwaiti, Saudi, Iraqi and Egyptian nationalities. Those are the ones I remember.
And there was a very nice surprise which is the presence of the 3 finalists of last year: the Jordanian Diana Karazon, Super Star 2003, in Jordan; The Syrian Rowayda, Second finalist, in Bahrain; and the Lebanese Melhem Zein, third finalist, in Lebanon.
Their presence gave a very big push to the participants who were mostly stressed and nervous. They supported everyone and cheered up the ones who didn’t make it.
The participants sang different styles: modern, classic, and folklore. Each tried to stress the best parts of their voices, except for the ones who made wrong choices and sang songs that don’t show the strength and beauty of their voice layers but show a bad voice. Maybe those people didn’t have ones to direct them, or maybe they weren’t aware of their own voice’s strength and weakness, so they failed in choosing the right musical layers to suit their voice!
Anyway, there are always participants who will pass and others who will not, and all participants should take things easy to enjoy the moment, and maybe prepare better for the next year.
As for now, we’ll be waiting for next week to come so we can see who else made it to the second level (which will be in Beirut). Until then let’s all wish the participants all the luck and hope that the best, regardless of the nationality, will win to offer us a beautiful voice to hear as often as possible.

This great Egyptian actor is one of a kind. I saw his last movie “ Al Tagroba Addenmarkeyya”, the Danish Experience, and WOW, it was wonderful, just like the rest of his movies.
He movie experienced great success. In both Jordan and Tunisia cinemas were filled with people who loved the movie.
With every new movie Adel Imam proves that he is a very spontaneous and natural actor, you can’t feel he’s acting, you can’t but believe you’re watching a part of his own personal life.
He had amazing success in comedy, but even in the non-comedy works of his, he always shows a very unique ability to relate the audience to what they’re watching, a movie, a play or anything.
Before the above mentioned movie I’ve watched “Ameer Al Thalam” , which means the Prince of Darkness, representing a special blind man. It was one hell of a movie. And in the “Al Tagroba Addenmarkeyya” he played the role of a rich man who devoted himself to raising his four boys, doing everything to offer them a perfect life and helping them be the best in all means.
Actually all the ones who played in this movie were great, the old and young actors, but the movie presented a new acting talent: Nicole Saba. A former member of the Lebanese 4 Cats singing band. But this was her first acting experience, in which she took the major part. Her performance was impressive showing a good acting talent, and although I hate it when movies focus on women’s appearances and sexuality all the time, but still it was part of the idea this movie wanted to express.
This movie wasn’t just a comedy or a simple story for people to pass time, no it actually discussed many things: cultural backgrounds and differences between western and eastern countries; social levels in the society; people’s behavior and the factors that affect it such as greediness or egoism; the misuse of power; the effect of money and authority; the very thin line between civilized freedom and the out of control dangerous freedom; and last but not least the relationship between sacrificing loving parents and their loyal children that is stronger than any desire and need.

Besides his great movies that are filling homes with laughter and happiness ever since he started acting many many years ago, Adel Imam proves again and again, that the older generation of actors is not is not hindering it from reaching the success it deserves. He shows everyone that the old should help the young in any possible way instead of attacking them and trying to close all doors of work in their faces. And to prove this he includes so many times new faces in his movies, and he gives the young actors some parts in his work showing very respectful and friendly feelings towards the young actors, the young actors who are learning from the very professional older actors and benefiting from their wide experience in acting.
And there is no better example on this like his last movie where he gave a chance to so many new faces to play major parts in front of him, like Nicole Saba and the actors who played his four boys, not to forget including a scene where the young couple Mona Zaki and Ahmad Hilmi appears.
There is nothing better than good acting which is accompanied by high spirits and great morals.

For those of you who still didn’t watch the movie, make sure you don’t miss it.

Other than the fact that the movie Chicago has great actors involved in it, and other than the beautiful dances, the music and the lyrics which were out of this world. I watched the movie twice, and then played the songs it had in it around three times.
The music gave the movie its beauty more than anything, but alone the music can never be successful, especially if accompanied by bad lyrics. And the lyrics of the movie were more than perfect.
Of course this made it hard for other non-English speakers to enjoy the greatness of the movie, because in other versions the lyrics had to stay in English which means half of the ideas, explanations and representations were lost for those who don’t understand English. On the other hand, I can’t imagine the same music with different lyrics in different languages.
Anyway, back to what I came to write about in the first place: the songs. The ones I loved most were:
1. Mama where Queen Latifa was more than great in her performance, in fact, I started looking for her movies after watching Chicago. She has a unique sense of humor, and she is a very natural person, you don’t feel her acting.
2. He Had It Coming, with its heavenly music, I love Tango, and the dance was perfect, and did really express the corruption and crimes. The song was really amazing, specially the way they started it out.
3. Both Reached For The Gun, which I loved in each and every way, Richard Gere was incredible, so natural, so spontaneous and so professional, and Renee Zellweger was amazing you almost believe she was nothing but a puppet. And even the dancers in the background, they were extremely professional, for a minute I believed they were wooden puppets. Another thing I loved about this song was the playing with singing speed: oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, oh yes they both … WOW THAT WAS LOVELY.
4. And last but not least was the last song in the movie, in which Catherine Zeta Jones was more than successful. She really showed a great talent in this movie. And this very last song, I loved this beautiful thought: you can like the life you’re living, you can live the life you like. It’s soooo beautiful. And it makes us wonder, are we living the life we like, or we just like the life we’re living.
There is a big difference between the two in terms of real meaning. Some of us choose to like the life they’re living, and they call it satisfaction and happiness. Others also convince themselves to like the life they’re living just because they can’t do any better, which I consider giving up the right to taste real happiness. And some never settle down with less than the life they dream of, the life they’d really like, and they call this ambition. When some others are never satisfied with what they have, and I call this greediness.
To me liking the life you’re living and living the life you like are very different, yet they complete each other somehow.
It’s so great to like the life you’re living, be attached to its little details and love it in all its good and bad, even if this life isn’t what you pictured for yourself in early stages of life. On the other hand, it’s equally great to live the life you like, struggle to reach it and work hard to get it. And when it comes to me I think the best thing to do is to like the life you’re living no matter how good or bad it is, but at the very same time work hard till you live the life you like. And most important of all appreciate your life whether it’s what you like or what you’re just living. And if you’re suffering in your life, take it easy, think of it quietly and you’ll work it out yourself. You’ll solve the problems, and then you’ll like your life, and you’ll find yourself not only liking the life you’re living but also living the life you’re like.