حدث في العامرية

Sometimes my pieces are based on real events that I’ve witnessed, the most being the song “It happened in Al-Amiriyya,” based on a 1991 incident that happened during the Gulf War: American soldiers entered a shelter in which Iraqi children were hiding, and 800 children were killed. I don’t remember exactly how I felt, but I found myself going to the site of the massacre the next day. I took my oud along and started to play, letting out my feelings. The song is not a political statement. I’ve never been a great believer in politics and I don’t like being referred to as an activist. The song is simply a record of the day I was playing in the middle of the burnt out backpacks, toys and clothes. It was the first Arabic song describing an actual event, and I tried to be as graphic as possible in the writing of the song so that the listeners would be as imaginative as they could be. In this case it wasn’t about melodies any longer: the song includes siren sounds (from the oud) among other atmospheric ideas, innovations that serve that purpose…

— Naseer Shamma