The songs below are adapted from Darwish poems and were originally released on the album “Promises of the Storm,” which was first released in 1976 and was Marcel Khalife's first lyrical album. It endeared him to millions in the Arab world. It contains some of Marcel's most popular songs such as "Rita" and "Mother"(Oummi) and "Passport" (Jawaz El Safar). Marcel Khalife and Mahmoud Darwish met for the first time 7 years after the first release of "Promises of the Storm".

Darwish wrote of Khalife, "Marcel Khalife's music eliminated the gap created by the poets between poem and song. He restored to exiled emotions its rescuing power to reconcile poetry, which glorified its distance from people and was thus abandoned by them. Poetry, therefore, developed the song of Marcel Khalife, While Khalife's song mended the relationship of poetry with people."

 

The two Quicktime video clips below were recorded live at the Carthage International Festival in Tunisia on July 19, 2002 in front of an audience of 12,000 people.

Taqasim  1:  http://www.marcelkhalife.com/httpdocs/video/taqasim1.wmv

Taqasim  2:  http://www.marcelkhalife.com/httpdocs/video/taqasim2.wmv

Passport: http://arabworld.nitle.org/audiovisual.php?module_id=5&selected_feed=229.

 

Mother: http://arabworld.nitle.org/audiovisual.php?module_id=5&selected_feed=230