North African stars and Brooklyn's own Shaheen thrill 3,000 in Manhattan concert and drop by Club Afropop after concert party to celebrate with fans
--by Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre, Photos by B. Eyre

Khaled and Hakim played to an ecstatic, sold-out crowd of three-thousand fans Friday night at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan. Hakim started with a real orchestra behind him--horns, percussion, and backing vocal sections, a swaying accordion and a mean flute topping the basic keyboard rock rig. He pranced and grinned, and sang his heart out on one pumping, tightly arranged shaabi zinger after another. Hakim finished his set gloried in the din of the crowd--as well as the flags of Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria.

Khaled then hit with driving crowd pleasers like "Sahra" and "N'ssi N'ssi." Most of the audience rose to dance during his first number and never sat down. But soon Khaled was dodging stage-jumping fans and No-Mr.-Nice-Guy, Size Extra Large bouncers. Khaled cooled into a couple of reggae numbers before resuming the rai hit parade. Mid-set, he invited Simon Shaheen to the stage and the Palestinian maestro polished up Khaled's ten-piece band with lustrous violin work on two songs. Shaheen then dared a solo oud taksim before this wild congregation, and against all the odds, tamed them with his virtuosity. Khaled returned, still wearing the black-and-white, Palestinean scarf a fan had offered, and led his band, a visibly relieved Shaheen, and the crowd in a rousing, cathartic group sing of his mega-hit "Aicha." It was mayhem again when the band slammed into a long, jamming "Didi," and when the lights came up the Beacon's roof was gone.

The stars Hakim, Khaled, and Simon Shaheen and their bandsmen graced our Club Afropop after concert reception and dance party which Afropop Worldwide produced at the nearby Crane Club. When Khaled's entourage arrived at our party, fresh from a challenging, barricade protected dash out of the Beacon past surging throngs of fans, he was immediately surrounded by autograph seekers and photo souvenir takers in the lobby at our Club Afropop party. The poor guy looked he needed a place to sit down and something to drink, so Afropop producer Sean Barlow took him firmly by the hand and pulled him into the VIP reception area. There, eagerly awaiting the stars were the Ambassadors from Egypt and Algeria, journalists from Al Ahram newspaper and ART (Arab Radio and Televsion), Arab-American businesse owners of restaurants, wine import companies, the head of the Algerian-American Association (our promotional partners) etc., plus Club Afropoppers and our friends and colleagues in the trenches of New York's global music scene in the print and electronic media, club booking, record labels, retail, and North African music fans. When locally based belly dancer, Dorit, arrived on the scene dressed in electric crimson silk, she danced magnificently right in front of Hakim who smiled his big broad smile.

Meanwhile, deejays Amir and Neva kept the main dance floor jumping with rai, shaabi, and club mixes of North African sounds. The food donated by the Souk, Café Kabab and Mombar restaurants was delicious. Our next Club Afropop event, thankfully, will be a smaller production! But also very memorable. We will see Angelique Kidjo performing songs from her classy forthcoming album, "Black Ivory Soul" (Columbia) due out in mid-March. Our event is Thursday March 7th at Joe's Pub in downtown Manhattan. Club Afropoppers will gather beforehand at a nearby restaurant. Space for our event is limited. To reserve your place, call World Music Productions at 718-398-2733 or e-mail us at info@afropop.org