Music: traditional, lyrics: Chaim Tauber
Olga Avigail vocal/arrangement, Ittai Binnun ney/music production, Ilan Kenan oud, bass guitar, Ivan Ceresnjes drumms
footage of Yemenite Jewish henna and wedding ceremony, courtesy of Talia Collis, The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive

In 1927, an Istanbulborn Greek musician, Tetos Demetriades, having recently translocated to the US, recorded a piece of music he remembered from his youth. “Misirlou”, loosely translated as “Egyptian Girl”, was a swaying, erotic folk song performed in the rebetiko style that was popular among Greek Anatolians: “The sweet way you look at me lights flames in my heart . . . honey seeps from your lips.” The mesmerising and catchy melody, not credited with a composer, proved popular and the song was performed in a variety of styles in subsequent years. It also became something of what we would today call a “world music sensation”: versions were recorded in Arabic and Yiddish, and various communities of the eastern Mediterranean laid claim to the original melody. (from: 'The Life of a Song: ‘Misirlou’/my FT)