{"id":35161,"date":"2013-12-25T12:47:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T12:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=35161"},"modified":"2013-12-25T12:50:36","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T12:50:36","slug":"surprising-new-face-in-arabic-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=35161","title":{"rendered":"Surprising New Face in Arabic Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surprising New Face in Arabic Music<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a>
\n2013-12-03<\/p>\n

Linsay Crouse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jennifer Grout Sings Umm Kulthum Hits on \u2018Arabs Got Talent\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

The Arab world has an unlikely new star: an American who sings \u2014 but barely speaks \u2014 Arabic. Not only that, her genre is traditional Arab music.<\/p>\n

Plucking her oud<\/a>, an Arabic version of the lute, and singing with the undulating emotion of Umm Kulthum<\/a>, the Arab world\u2019s legendary diva, the 23-year-old Jennifer Grout has become a sensation across the Middle East as a contestant on the reality show \u201cArabs Got Talent<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She will appear in the finals in Beirut, Lebanon<\/a>, on Saturday, competing for viewer votes against an array of Arab performers, many of whom would be at home on a Western stage: comedians, hip-hop dancers and jugglers. The only performer of classical Arab music will be an American of European stock…<\/p>\n

… \u201cSo many times I\u2019ve heard the comment \u2018It\u2019s \u201cArabs Got Talent\u201d \u2014 go back to America,\u2019 \u201d Ms. Grout said in a recent phone interview from Marrakesh, Morocco<\/a>, where she lives. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m starting an invasion, when really I just love singing Arabic music and desperately wanted a chance to perform it for an audience that would appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her flair in doing so has also incited a wave of incredulity about her ethnicity: Ms. Grout, who is from Cambridge, Mass.<\/a>, describes her background as English, Scottish and Native American…<\/p>\n