COTA Show
The show at Center of the Arts was a success! I had an incredible time performing for everyone. (Despite fighting a bad case of food poisoning) The audience was so warm and welcoming. The lovely and ever-so-supportive Kingdome wrote an article covering the event. Here’s a preview of the article:
We barely had a few minutes between sets so we had to choose between rushing to the restrooms, catching a quick smoke-break or making a dash outside the venue around the corner for something hot to eat or drink (my only gripe with the event), before we transitioned into Omar Afuni’s set. He had Lester Rodrigues on the keyboard and Adel Al Qattan on the guitar for company, and for the next forty minutes, I relived the many stages of a bitter relationship with his songs. Omar used his time with the audience to showcase some tracks from his recent album ‘RUSH’, to dedicate a track from Adel Al Qattan’s latest album ‘Qattana‘ with a different sound and to also pay homage to one of his music idols.
He began with the intense ‘Resurrect Me’ and segued into even deeper emotional territory with such songs as ‘This Can’t Be Love,’ a snippet from the La La Land soundtrack and ‘Spinning Top,’ another of his originals. Apart from the catchy music composition, it is the lyrics in Omar’s songs that lend his music its character. They hit close to home – he doesn’t hold back when it comes to exorcising personal demons through his words, and you find yourself drifting into a similar heartspace.
If Ghaneema provided an airy beginning, Omar’s is the set that has a richness to it that’s a lot like fresh wet soil. His voice is earthy and rich, with a theatrical quality that hits the high notes and the bass with equal ease. He is also a showman, mixing up his songs with glimpses into the inspiration behind his lyrics, dedicating a Qattana track to his bandmate Adel as a belated birthday gift and teaching the audience the hook of his very catchy original, Rush.
Tying the set together with a couple of George Michael’s timeless classics, ‘Faith’ and ‘Careless Whisper,’ and the current wedding anthem, John Legend’s ‘All of Me,’ Omar Afuni gave the rest of us a perfect musical catharsis. A little heartache, a lot of healing, some foot-tapping, much reminiscing and an earworm; I’m currently singing Rush-ra-ra-ra-ra-rush in an effort to finish this write-up faster days after the event!
