Farah Siraj Wows Crowds in Unique Vocal Performance

In a conversation during dinner, Siraj, who is closely related to the Jordanian royal family, related that she uses her music to raise awareness of such crucial humanitarian causes as the genocides in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the conflict in Gaza.

She revealed that she first went on stage at age 3. “My parents wanted to take me off the stage, but I didn’t want to leave. I loved every minute of it, and have loved it since then.”

And that love was apparent as Siraj, dressed in a colorful Middle Eastern dress, gracefully ascended the stage with her two musicians, jazz and flamenco guitarist Andreas Arnold, and percussionist Adam Maalouf, both of whom accompanied her with great resonance and musicality.

For more than an hour the professional singer who has performed in such notable venues as the United Nations, Lincoln Center, and the John F. Kennedy Center, delighted the audience with Arabic, Spanish and American specialties. Her vocal interpretations, sometimes self-accompanied on guitar, brought on enthusiastic high-pitched celebratory trilling from female members of the audience, a well-known practice in the Middle East.

Graciously thanking those responsible for her performance, she related that “music is a medium for people to come together peacefully. It engages the soul so that we can connect with each other on a deep level where the superficial differences become irrelevant.”

Siraj, a native of Jordan, has lived in Spain and the United States, receiving her musical training at London’s Trinity College of Music, and Boston’s Berklee College of Music. She cites the legendary Oum Kalthoum, Paco de Lucia, and Ella Fitzgerald as her inspirations, and in her presentations she fuses flamenco, Middle Eastern, jazz, bossa nova and pop.