LEBANON: A rockin' American messenger of 'peace and love'

This time, the U.S. envoy to Lebanon was not a politician or a security official but a messenger of "peace and love" straight from the world of American rock.

Coming to Lebanon to sing for the "regeneration" of the city of Beirut and to voice her rejection to war, the U.S. singer and poet Patti Smith performed this week in Lebanon a mixture of antiwar and rebellion songs, including "Because the Night", "Gloria" and "Helpless."

The celebrated 1970s rock icon turned political activist performed near the old Phoenician port at the opening of the Byblos music festival, one of numerous music events taking place this summer in Lebanon after violence has subsided in the country and tourists have started to flood in again.

"To all mothers and children who lost children, all unnecessarily in war, which seems to me in our time something we can make obsolete," Smith said before dazzling the audience with "Qana."

The song is pointedly political. It's about the children who died in an Israeli air strike on a Lebanese village during the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Here are some excerpts:

There's no one in the village, not a human nor a stone... Children are gone and a mother rocks herself to sleep. Let it come down, let her weep… Some stayed buried, others crawled free... Little bodies, tied head and feet, wrapped in plastic, laid out in the street… The new Middle East… The dead lay in strange shapes… Wine to blood, Oh Qana, the miracle is love.

At one point, Smith wore a kaffiyeh, a scarf with black and white patterns that has become a symbol of the Palestinian upheaval.

-- Raed Rafei in Beirut

Credit: Patti Smith performs in Byblos, Lebanon. Credit: Associated Press

IRAQ: Summer music in Kurdistan

Once, Azzadi garden was a military base where tens of Kurdish citizens were executed under the rule of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein.

So the Kurdish folk songs wafting on its summer breeze last week had a special meaning for residents who gathered there to welcome the season with music.

"My body and soul moved as I listened to the music, especially in this environment," said Shireen Wihab, 29. "I never felt like this before."

Download  music clip

Download  music clip

Altogether, the Ministry of Culture put on 24 concerts across the three Kurdish provinces. The musicians played late into the night in gardens, hospitals, infirmaries and even jails.

IRAN: Chris de Burgh plans to play Tehran

Chris de Burgh is determined to sing for his lady, whether she wears a sexy red dress or an austere black chador.

This fall, the British pop star, who became famous worldwide with his 1980s light-rock hit "The Lady in Red," will likely perform in the Iranian capital.

This is what he and his Iranian producers announced at a news conference in Tehran on Wednesday morning.

Of course, there is still the arduous task of getting a official written permission from Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and then making sure that the country's strict religious authorities do not decide to spoil the party.

EGYPT: Lutes and Sufi chanters

As the rising sounds of oriental percussion and lutes resonated around him, the frail Sufi chanter struck a glass with prayer beads in fast repetitive movements. His vibrant voice sang love for the prophet Mohammed.

The man featured at a cultural center in Cairo was Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tuni, one of Egypt's emblematic figures of Sufism, a school of Islam with mystical dimensions. Al-Tuni represents an old line of performers of musical and singing traditions transmitted orally from generation to generation.

Sufis believe they can transcend into a state of altered consciousness and experience closeness to Allah, or God. This is usually achieved through a set of rituals that involve whirling the head or the body to intense rhythmic music and repetitive chanting of divine names.

SYRIA: Radio as a sound sensation

It's the midmorning commute, and time for the horoscope on "Good Morning Syria," the nation's hottest radio show.

"Cancer," host Honey Sayed addresses listeners first in Arabic, then in English, with an air of sisterly candor, "don't get all worked up for nothing."

On the other side of the window, deejay Abdullah Shaaban cues an oldie from John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. "I got chills, they're multiplying," Travolta sings. "And I'm losing control."

Honey laughs and continues with her astrology report. "An opportunity is present," she coos into the microphone, "so take it, Leo."

Newly instituted freedom on the nation's airwaves has transformed Syria's sonic landscape. Some say it is shaping the way people view themselves, part of a wave of global influences turning this nation, whose government is the most hostile to the West in the Arab world, into the culture most amenable to it.

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—Borzou Daragahi in Damascus

Photo: Her bubbly laugh has become her signature, and is even used for promos. “A guy called me up and said he wished he could make my laugh his ring tone,” Honey Sayed says. Credit: John Wreford / For the Times

EGYPT: A necklace and a voice

It was the story of a necklace threaded with 1,800 pearls that got me searching for an old cassette tape. The necklace belonged to Umm Kulthum, a daughter from a poor Nile Delta village who became Egypt's favorite diva until her death in 1975. Her voice was big and strong, yet nuanced, attuned to the whims of love and broken love and all the human rhythms in-between. She sang poetry and verse. Wearing sunglasses and coiffed hair, her hands rising amid the orchestra, Kulthum could put you in a place and gently bring you back.

She was loved throughout the Arab world; millions attended her funeral. Her necklace of nine rows of pearls will be auctioned by Christie's in April, according to the Associated Press. I remember the first time I heard her voice on a scratchy car radio in Cairo. It was years ago. I was rushing for a plane. Her phrasing soothed me. I didn't understand the words, but the voice was pure, transcending language and time.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Umm Kulthum / Credit: Arabfilm.com

IRAQ: Willie is the way

Every Marine has his own way of handling the perils of being in a convoy on a route where roadside bombs and snipers may await.

Cpl. Tyler Head of Oklahoma City settles back in the driver's seat of his Humvee and flips a switch on his jerry-built stereo. Out blares the Willie Nelson song, "On The Road Again."

"It gets me in the mood," Head said.

— Tony Perry in Hit in the Euphrates River Valley

Video: Willie Nelson performs country classic, "On the Road Again."

IRAQ: An "oud" to better times

Exiled Iraqi musician Rahim Al Haj has his share of fans back in the home country all cheering along his nomination for a Grammy at next month’s awards ceremony, but there is good bit of angst among musicians left behind. Due to travel restrictions, the central government’s deteriorating support for the arts and general mayhem, most can only dream of reaching any audience, much less a global one.

Al Haj’s album, “When the Soul is Settled: Music of Iraq," is competing for the Best Traditional World Music Album prize. The album is a gorgeous rendering inspired by the artist’s immigration to New Mexico and is performed on the oud —the pear shaped, string instrument. Pronounced “ooood,” it is the nation’s most treasured instrument and has existed in one form or another in the Middle East for more than 5,000 years.

When Salman Shukur, Iraq's last traditional master of the oud died recently, no mention was paid by the country’s culture ministry, a fact recalled bitterly by Sami Nasim, the leader of the most famous remaining group of oud players in Iraq, the Munir Basher Group.

“Even in Saddam’s time, we got more support and attention,” he said.

— Garrett Therolf in Baghdad

Video: Expat Iraqi musician Rahim Al-Haj plays the oud, a traditional Middle Eastern instrument, for a Smithsonian recording.

IRAN: More nuclear juice

Six shipments down and just two more to go before all 82 tons of Russian nuclear fuel to fire up the light-water reactor in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr are delivered.

Number six arrived Thursday morning, according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iran's Atomic Energy Production and Development Co. said the the 11-ton Russian shipment has already been sent down to Bushehr, a Persian Gulf port city once known mostly for its lively music and traditional architecture instead of as the site of the Muslim Middle East's first atomic reactor.

LEBANON: Untouchable diva in political cross-fire

Lebanon is a highly divided nation where people of various religions constantly bicker over almost everything. The one thing Lebanese of all stripes have long agreed on has been their unconditional devotion to the country's greatest pop music diva, Fairouz.

Well, apparently, not anymore. After their beloved 70-something mega-star decided to sing late this month in the country's much-derided neighbor, Syria, even she has been soiled by Lebanon's political mudfight.

MIDDLE EAST: Pop stars and soda pop

When Lebanese mega pop star Nancy Ajram signed a six-figure endorsement deal with Coca-Cola in 2005, Pepsi took the challenge, and very seriously.

Not content with signing one rival singer, Pepsi assembled a whole team of Arab world pop stars and cast them in a full-length musical, a totally unprecedented move by a multinational in the Middle East.

The two giant beverage companies have been gearing up vehemently to claim the soft-drink allegiance among Arab youth. This comes as no surprise in a region with a burgeoning population of Muslim youths often socially or legally forbidden from drinking alcohol.