Zara

No, it’s not what you’re thinking: I didn’t visit one of the branches of the international company that retails Spanish clothing and accessories. 🙂

Zara is a “pop” singer of ethnic Kurdish background and is widely popular in countries in Europe and Asia. Usually, as with all pop singers, Zara’s songs are upbeat and lively, engaging people of the younger generations. However, on this tour, Zara focused primarily on songs of various time periods, cultures, and backgrounds. During the performance, Zara sang in English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French, and Armenian and her repertoire included traditional songs, classical pieces, modern songs, and old-fashioned romances/ballads.

Zara sang many songs throughout the night, including Lara Fabian’s song, titled “Adagio,” as well as symbolic World War II songs and even “Une Histoire d’Amour.” The musicians accompanying her were incredible, as well as the dancers were during some of the waltzes.

And, while all of the songs were very enjoyable to listen to, one of the songs Zara sang that night was unlike any other. Dle Yaman, or “Դլե յաման”, (the first video below) is the song that caused the audience, regardless of nationality or origin, as a whole to be entirely unmoving and remain transfixed, whether on Zara or within the emotions that the song brought about. Originally, this Armenian song was a love song written a very long time ago, with the words accompanied by a duduk, which is a traditional woodwind instrument indigenous to Armenia. However, Dle Yaman has become one of the most common symbols and laments of the Armenian genocide.

Although I couldn’t find actual videos from her concert on November 3rd,2013, the following are a few examples of the arrangements that she sang during her performance:

Start the following video at 0:44 to view Zara sing.

Zara’s genuine emotions infused every song that she sang, her humble manner when accepting bouquets of flowers was definitely a rare encounter among celebrities of her caliber, and her happiness while singing encores definitely added to my enjoyment of the performance.