Gina Dirawi - Meet Me In Jannah (2022) Hi-Res

POP In addition to the big presenter jobs, she dreamed Gina Dirawi always about being able to record an album. She released a few singles as early as seven years ago, but that was only when she first came into contact with her Bjorn Yttling and Freja Drakenberg that she found at home. “It was like seeing yourself in the sound,” Dirawi said of the meeting.

The music on the debut album “Meet me in Jannah” always sounds great, no matter if she sings barefoot or accompanied by a large choir and a plethora of instruments. Her voice rests beautifully on the fast guitars as she sings about praying to Allah in the opening “Sunday”: “I’ll Catch You On A Sunday / If You Have The Weekend Off”. It doesn’t matter that it’s a holiday and no one is allowed to listen, the need for inner peace is too great to wait.

Dirawi had a clear idea of ​​how the music should sound: it should be raw, spontaneous and ideally imperfect. For example, the closing “Live and Die” is captured in a single take and the end of the song is completely improvised. The main character sings in falsetto as the big soundscape intensifies.

It’s courageous to let spontaneity prevail on the first album. But Gina Dirawi manages to rely on emotions without ever losing herself. On the contrary, “Meet me in Jannah” is a rarely self-confident debut. The 31-year-old interweaves Arabic folk music with alternative pop and creates his very own sound.

The album concept is just as unique. Jannah is the Arabic word for paradise, a place Dirawi often thinks of (she published her acclaimed debut novel Paradise Is Under Her Mother’s Feet two years ago). The album is marked by a longing to get to a place free of pain and suffering, and the constant quest for freedom can often be heard in the voice. Sometimes it sounds heavy with sadness and sometimes it seems to reach peace.

Both emotional states are contained in “Bmoot”, one of the album’s three songs in Arabic. The title means “I am dying” and is about feeling abandoned in relationship with another person, God or the world. Gina Dirawi switches between different tones to finally sound like she’s getting lost in the music.

It’s one of many moments on “Meet Me in Jannah” that linger long after the final notes have been played.