Watr, a podcast created by the Dubai-based Finyal Media, interviews Arab musicians and discusses their artistic journeys. Each episode features a different musician and a few of their favorite or most recent tracks.

In the episode linked below, the Iraqi musician Shebani, discusses her first musical forays on YouTube and her studies in London. She also talks about living with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which has inspired some of her songwriting.

Shebani uses a natural Arabizy with plenty of English words thrown into conversation. She’ll frequently repeat the same word in English, then in Arabic, making this episode more comprehensible to those with intermediate Arabic skills. Her songs are beautiful and moving but, unfortunately for us, all her lyrics are in English.

Vocabulary / مفردات

0:00
وتر
Chord

1:49
كنت كتير خجولة فيعني ما فوتت بموسيقى
I was very shy so I didn’t enter into music

2:05
كنت تعزف بالجيتار؟
Did you play guitar?
Note that the verb عزف is only used to describe “playing” a musical instrument while لعب is used for “playing” a game. In English, there’s only one verb for the two meanings of “playing.”

6:27
ايش القصة وراء
What’s the story behind [the song]?

6:45
فكتبت كتير كتيير أغاني لآنو كنت واحدة وزهانة
So I wrote a lot, a lot of songs because I was lonely and bored

7:25
جاي على بالي
It came to mind

7:45
بحس لازم أدوري عالأساس الي ممكن تطلع النتيجة.
I feel that one must search for the basics to get the right results

11:35
مش طبعية
Unnatural
In this case, used in a positive sense to mean “amazing” or “terrific”

12:15
في كتير مواهب مختلفة
There are a lot of different talents

12:41
بتحس حالك بضيع بين الكراود
I feel like I’m lost in the crowd

12:45
تحول تدور عالاشي الي بتخليك فعلا هيك يونيك، سباشيل، اشي نادر
You try to look for the thing that will make this really unique, special, something rare

13:57
شو تسوي؟ انا ميوزيشان. مغني او كتابة أغاني او برفومر
What do you do? I am a musician. A singer or a songwriter or a performer

15:54
ما بعزف البيانو كتير منيح بس بعرف الكوردس والسلالم
I don’t play the piano very well but I know chords and scales

16:26
البيانو كتير ناعم. حسيت حالي طلع مني اشي هيك
The piano is very gentle. I felt something leave me, this thing

17:07
كان فيها مثل الاستسلام
It was like a surrender

20:54
وانتي عملتي اشي رهيب جدا
And you did something really amazing

21:57
كل حياتي انا كنت دايما يعني من الوزن الزايد
All my life, I always suffered from being overweight

23:13
الميكس-وب بالهرمونات
The hormones are mixed-up

24:12
أروح ألعب رياضة او أروح اضعفي
Go play sports or go lose weight

25:28
حسيت انو بال تين يرس، الي هو ال١٧ وال١٨، كان في عندي مثل ما بتقول كسر بثقة النفسي
I felt that in the teen years, from 17 and 18 years old, I had, like, what you call broken self-confidence

28:50
موجودة ع كل المنصات
Is available on all platforms

28:53
وفي أغنية جديدة نزله في نوفمبر ٢٤
And there is a new song that was released November 24th