If only one word could be used to describe Oklahoma singer-songwriter Kareem Salama, it would have to be “dynamic.” His easy Southern drawl, warm laughter and laid-back nature don’t immediately indicate his many accomplishments. Aside from his musical career, Salama happens to be a chemical engineer with a recently earned degree in entertainment and patent law. He’s been a boxing champion in his youth and can easily recite Arabic poetry.
In 2006, Salama decided to record some of the songs he had been writing in his spare time. “I had no intention of doing an album,” says the rising musician, 29, of his Generous Peace debut disc. “It just happened.”
It all began in 2005, when Salama performed live at the Islamic Society of North America conference in Chicago. He performed his hybrid sound of rock, pop and country for a crowd of more than 20,000.
“People seemed to really like it and some of them kept bugging me to put together an album,” Salama recalls. “I hesitated until my Dad gave me the final push. I closed my eyes and prayed about it and began looking for a recording studio. Then I found one that just seemed like a sign.” (more…)
Today in the ” Mighty Uni ” I sat alone, under my fav tree, listening to Fairouz. I was suffocating, I felt like there was no Oxygen in the air… in the whole uni… in the whole freaking country!
I closed my eyes and kept thinking about Morocco, I kept thinking about Tanjer’s port, I kept thinking about the river of Fez, I kept thinking about Marrakech and Sahat El Fna and I kept thinking about walking barefoot on Agadir’s beach! but I couldn’t go far with this daily imagination of mine… cuz this following story has been haunting me for weeks…
It’s on CNN now, It’s becoming international… no more “what happens in Saudi stays in Saudi” !
I had to conquer my pride to get this piece of art… Oh the humanity!
Verse 1
Don’t you? Ever wonder what might be if you lived life free
Don’t you? Ever wonder what its like to fly off the high dive
Don’t you? Think the dreams in you are meant to ever come true
Don’t you? Know that hopes are slaves till you free them and see them thru
Can you find a little life in you and make your days and nights worth living
I swear there’s more for us to do there’s more for the taking and the giving
Want to build a kingdom of heaven so its time to lay the foundation
Want to know my neighbors in the world and finally lay down idle speculation
Chorus
This life of mine
This life of mine
Aint the life I had in mind
But if I’m bold enough, wise enough then I can make this life worth while
I can make this life worth a smile
Sarah staring out the window from her corner office
But Sarah always thought she’d grow up to build beautiful gardens
Jonah waking up for another day of biding his time
But Jonah always thought he’d open a school and make kids smile
Sarah prays and she takes a chance opens up her own little business
Names her dream the kingdom of heaven makes herself the prince and the princess
Jonah says so long to the subway and buys land just out the city
Builds a school of love and learning for city kids that need something pretty
Chorus
Jonah says his new school could use a nice little garden
So Jonah finds a brand new shop called kingdom of heaven
Sarah smiles when she hears the bells on the front door ring
So Sarah thinks this is the beginning of her landscape dreams
Jonah says hello can you help me I’m looking for help with my school
Sarah says certainly we’ve got just the thing for you
Jonah sees something in Sarah and Sarah sees something there too
Two years later Jonah marries Sarah and now more than their dreams came true
Me and all my friends
We’re all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There’s no way we ever could
Now we see everything is going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don’t have the means
To rise above and beat it
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Its hard to beat the system
When we’re standing at a distance
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Happy birthday my sweet, sweet Linz… and yeah you’re right all the cool people were born in Nov!
Pray I get my own national ID
Pray I get to continue my studies
Pray I get to work when I do that
Pray I get to drive myself to the hospital when I’m sick
Pray I get to choose my husband
Pray I get to exit the house for anything else than uni
Pray…
know what…
Just pray I soon get out of your “Kingdom of Humanity” and live as a human…
Funny how no one in my real life (offline) said “happy birthday” to me! no one even knows when my birthday is :S while many, many people I know from the internet ( my second life) did!
I stupidly told mamma about it:
- ermmm you know what, I’m 22 now…
- really?
- yeah.
- thats scary!
- woaaa?
- 22 is the scary age.
- why is that?
- cuz when the girl is 22 people start thinking “she is too old”.
- too old for what?
- too old to get married.
- (sigh) you still think I care about that, don’t you?
- you have to care, it’s not an option!
- ohhh LOL
so you can say it was… well loathsome but a sweet, sweet one on line! lol I thought it was stupid to create a group about yourself in FB but when my friends created one for me I’m really loving it. They even wrote a poem for me:
“Roses are red, violets are blue
Monkeys like you should be kept in zoo
Don’t feel so angry you will find us there too
We’ve met a lot of girls around us
but like her we’ve never found
who by her laughs showers us
Each day that throw us to the ground
We’ve created the samolinjo union
But we smell lil bit like onion
When the eid come we start fighting
For takin a bath and start shining
From jordan to jaddah then ghaza till france
We sing together on MSN and dance
.
.
.
.
Thanks to you we love the rain
And Fairouz songs take off our pain
we wish a marriage soon cuz it s like breath
may god protect u from a Saudi freak”
Advise me not, my blamer, for
Calamities have opened my heart and
Tears have cleanses my eyes, and
Errors have taught me the language
Of the hearts.
- Gibran Khalil
