French music group proud to sing in Kurdish in Kurdistan Region
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) –The Samaïa trio, a French music group consisting of Éléonore Fourniau, Noemie Nael, and Luna Silva, performed for the first time in Erbil's ancient citadel in the Kurdistan Region last week.
The music group Samaïa performed at the ancient citadel tonight as part of the Jinda concert series organized jointly by the Institut Français à Erbil and Goethe-Institut Irak.
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"The French Institute and Goethe Institute together organized this event and invited us," Fourniau told Kurdistan 24. "We were also privileged to perform at the Mosul traditional festival organized by UNESCO. We also had a concert in Baghdad."
Fourniau also performed in Erbil's Garden restaurant on Nov. 24 and at the recent Kurdish Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakir (also known as Amed) in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast.
She is French but sings in Kurdish. She said the concert in Erbil went very well.
Read More: French singer hopes to perform again in Kurdistan
"When we sang Kurdish songs and govend (dance), people were very reactive," she recalled. "It was also so good for us to sing in Kurdish in Kurdistan, and it was the first time we did that in Kurdistan with the girls. It had a big meaning for us."
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Luna Silva told Kurdistan 24 that performing in Mosul was also very special.
"We saw Iraqi musicians. We each played a short amount of time, 20 minutes, so that we could see each other's performances, and that was very moving," she said. "People really seemed to appreciate the music, and it shows it's all about emotion. The language doesn't really matter anymore."
"We played in the museum that had been destroyed by Daesh (ISIS), so it was meaningful to play there," Fourniau said.
Silva also said they performed in the red zone in Baghdad at the French institute.
"We found out we were the first band to play in the red zone in 10 years, so it felt very special to be part of that and to be part of this reconstruction and sing louder and play stronger," she said.
The music group will release its second album in the autumn.
Noemie Nael told Kurdistan 24 it was her first time in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
"The concert was very powerful and emotional," she said.
"We could see that people were very moved and music was very popular," she added. "People were happy and touched by our music, and that's the only thing we can do really."
"We are very proud and happy to do that. We hope to perform again (here in the future)."