Preodering for release on 9th October - get the single 7ilween ft Bobo Secret and Lama3an now or as part of the preorder.
3TWI (عتوي) the name of Fatima Al Qadiri’s new EP, is Kuwaiti Arabic femme slang for dirty old man, literally meaning “male alley cat.”
Over four regional club tracks, Al Qadiri explores this voyeuristic yet humorous background character with long-time friends and vocal collaborators Bobo Secret, Lama3an and Gumar. Conceptually, the EP follows Al Qadiri’s long-term pre-occupation with dance music, gender identity and performance in West Asia.
Musically, the release is a homage and love letter to West Asian folk dance music traditions.
3twi celebrates the ethnic diversity of the region and the shared love of musical traditions across borders, through a coy queer lens.
Lyrically, the record is split between suggestive spoken word (ft Lama3an and Bobo Secret) and yearning anthems (ft Gumar), all queer in intention and meaning and largely improvised. The final track, ta3alay, samples acapella taken from the theme song of a Japanese cartoon, Tokimeki Tonight, translated for Arab audiences as Ranzy Almudhisha, originally sung by Lebanese singer Ihsan Sadek, and re-sung by Gumar to create a double vocal. All the songs are in Kuwaiti Arabic except ta3alay, sung in Classical Arabic, and zan kardeh yaw nah, which is in 3eemi (عيمي), a regional dialect of Farsi reflecting the Iranian heritage of Gumar and Al Qadiri.
7ilween loosely translates as “hotties”. The lyrics play out an interaction between the 3twi, who is “lookin for hotties,” and his potential clients.
Zan kardeh ya nah is 3eemi for “did you get married or not?” and the answer is inferred as No – a defacto West Asian queer anthem.
Zilim means “macho man” and is an ode to the region's butch femmes. The hook translates as “She, She’s the macho man, Her!”
Ta3alay means “Come here” addressed to a femme person. A love song calling her, “Oh tone in the mind, and in the realm of imagination, oh beautiful picture, do not stay imaginary, come here.”
The sleeve has original paintings by Khalid al Gharaball who painted the sleeve to Gumar, Fatima’s previous EP, with added calligraphy for the EP title.
Available on WAV / MP3 or FLAC and 12 inch vinyl
