Beautiful song from the Coptic church (I am assuming)

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brian614

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Here is a youtube video that documents the apparition of Mary on top of a Coptic Church…

youtube.com/watch?v=eKmwj29zH_8

I came across this a few years back and fell in love with the song in the background, I have always wondered what the singer was actually saying. Does anyone here know the translation or even what language she is singing in?

Thanks
 
Our brother **dzheremi **will, no doubt, be able to provide much more detail, but for the moment I’ll say this: the song is in Arabic (the standard literary variety, not Egyptian dialect), and isn’t traditional Coptic chant. While the voice is very familiar to me, I can’t place the singer, but from the style and the pronunciation, I’d guess she was Lebanese.

Anyway, I’m not an expert on Standard Arabic, but a loose rendering of the introduction says:

Oh Virgin, Mother of the Light,
Show yourself to me
We need your help, oh Virgin
We need your prayers always.
 
Actually, I won’t, unfortunately. This is the first time I’ve heard it, and I’m having trouble with it too. I wouldn’t have guessed that the singer is Egyptian, either (the dialect is definitely not Egyptian…I also would have guessed it was Lebanese…it doesn’t even sound like the Coptic [Arabic] taraneem singers, who I generally don’t like anyway, so I probably wouldn’t be able to place). Apparently it is included in a collection of hymns from St. Mark COC in New Jersey, but I don’t think that is actually where it is from (I have a few of their recordings, and they don’t sound like this at all; also this is clearly all one lady, so why not name her?). Anyway, you can find it on that page as “Ya Adra Ya Om Elnour”.

Sorry I can’t be of more help, but this is really above my pay grade as far as Arabic is concerned, and not really related to the hymns of the church. I don’t really pay attention to the pop-Arabic stuff that you can find all over YT as “Coptic song” or whatever (not that that’s what this is, but lots of things on YT that are listed as Coptic actually aren’t…I’ve even seen Fairuz songs listed as Coptic…by actual Copts…Lord have mercy). Most of it is kind of depressing to some degree.
 
Could it be Majda el-Roumi? The style is sort of similar to hers. I remember that she worked with Yousef Chahine quite a bit (can’t think of the name of the 1998(?) film, but she was the vocalist).
 
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