"Non-Arabic speaker in finals of Arab talent contest" by James H. Burnett III | Globe Staff, December 07, 2013
23-year-old Jennifer Grout’s rise is fueled not by heritage but by her gift — an astonishing voice that has wowed millions of viewers in the Middle East and northern Africa with her soulful renditions of classical Arab songs.
Not all in the region are thrilled, to say the least. It rankles some that an American woman with no connection to the culture — except a love of its music — might take home the top prize in the Arab world’s version of “America’s Got Talent.”
Brought to you by the MBC Group, a Dubai-based media conglomerate, so it's a $unni-sponsored enterprise much like Al-Jewzeera peddling rank AmeriKan TV trash.
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Grout will face 11 Arab finalists, many of whom will be performing more Western-style acts, including comedians and hip-hop dancers, and one acrobatic dancer with a routine inspired by Spider-Man. She will be the only contestant performing classical Arab music....
Grout recalls that she read an article in 2010 about Lebanese singer Fairouz, which prompted her to explore other Arab stars and eventually led her to have an oud made in Syria.
During the uprising and rebellion when they were under sanction? Is that legal?
Within months of discovering Fairouz, Grout was playing her oud in a Syrian restaurant in Montreal, and then she began learning to sing the songs.
“After about three months of learning to play, I sang my first note,’’ she said. “It was beautiful. I tell people often that it was magical. Until I found Arabic music, I had not thought of music as a performance career.”
But as her passion for Arabic music developed, friends and colleagues began advising Grout that she would need to learn to speak Arabic to advance her career.
“Other people saw it as a problem, but I never did,” says Grout, who asked her parents for a one-way ticket to Marrakesh, Morocco, after graduating from college so she could start absorbing a culture that birthed some of the music she had embraced. After living in Morocco for a year, Grout heard about “Arabs Got Talent” and flew to Beirut to audition....
No worry about studying terrorism with her, huh?
Also see:
Federal appeals court upholds Tarek Mehanna terror convictions
See what happens when you won't become an FBI informant?
A ruling on terrorism that throttles civil liberties
I missed the trial.
While Grout has received much encouragement, her appearance in the contest has triggered some controversy.
There has been some grousing, has there?
One commenter on a Sept. 18 YouTube video about Grout and her appearance on the show wrote, “Beautiful voice but she speaks Arabic and the jury is pretty aware of that fact. It’s a trick in order to gain publicity.’’ Another opined, “She’s great but this is Arabs Got Talent, not America’s.’’
One persistent theory on the Internet is that Grout really knows Arabic, and that the judges are covering for her.
“It is unfortunate that some critics — largely on the Internet — have made ridiculous accusations against Jenni and have complained about her,” said Daryl Grout in a telephone interview from Raleigh, N.C., where he and his wife now live.
Part of what fuels speculation about her true roots is Grout’s hard-to-place accent when she speaks English. “I have been asked about my accent a lot,’’ she said with a chuckle. “I’m not sure what to say. It’s mine. It’s unique. I’ve always spoken differently, since childhood.”
Beyond the controversy and rumors, a number of commentators have noted that Grout’s performance may mark a watershed in East-West cultural exchange.
The watershed will be when the bombs and missiles stop flying.
“Especially in an age of increasingly globalized popular culture, where so-called Western cultural forms have crossed all kinds of geographic boundaries, it was striking to see the directional arrow point the other way. Instead of Middle Eastern artists seeking to emulate American music, this time it was the other way around,’’ said Matthew Ellis, a Middle Eastern studies professor at Sarah Lawrence College.
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She says “music really is a universal language,” and I, Rocker, would have to agree.
UPDATE: Jennifer Grout places third in ‘Arabs got Talent’
