Ya Sitti
"Ya Sitti" (O grandma) is a musical project by the Palestinian artist Dalal Abu Amneh. It is an extension of her efforts in research and exploration in audio-blogging and text heritage. Dalal has used the discourse of Palestinian Heritage to document and facilitate its reach by the people today. Before the Nakba of 1948, the Levant in general and Palestine in particular have an explicit cultural and musical scene that is utterly remarkable."Ya Sitti" restores the sense of mind and soul from this era.The distinguishing focus of this production is that the musical heritage was born among the ordinary people. It was a genuine part of their lives, and not something reserved for the elites. In fact it has always been used at weddings and social events in urban and rural areas throughout the region.
The project "Ya Sitti" does not only aspire to revive this heritage, but also to evoke the environment in which this heritage is kept alive. This was carefully brought into beingthrough the video clip "Ya Sitti", the album and the live concerts. In doing so, Dalal restores the cultural sprawl of folk music heritage which was sung in the Great Levant, and the Arabic surrounding area, selecting songs that bear the legacy and heritage of Palestine, Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo. Accompanying Dalal is a precious group of grandmothers. In the past they would sing in close circles behind closed doors.
In this project we are proudly bringing them out on stage to the wider public in order to shed the light on their unique and important role as the birth-mothers of our folk song heritage and expose their extraordinary efforts in inheriting and preserving that heritage.
The grandmothers are not only singing, but diving with the Singer Dalal Abu Amneh into the stories and history of the songs, which reflect the lives of women in particular, and society in general, and revealing the emotional, humanitarian and sensual aspects of this music.
