You haven’t heard anything until you’ve heard the high notes in “Prelude in C” hit in a perfect falsetto

After the full-house all-out success of 2009’s Ramadan Quiz night, my choir, Dozan wa Awtar, decided that we’d pull off the same feat a year later, except with available seating for another hundred guests. Last night, we had a great show at the Action Target shooting range/go-karting club just south of Amman’s city limits.

Although we started selling tickets weeks ago, there were some times when it was touch-and-go about whether we’d be able to sell enough tickets to be able to justify the concert to our always-generous sponsors. Last year we had no trouble, but this year, Ramadan’s movement of two weeks earlier means that school isn’t yet in session again, unlike last year. Both foreigners and Arabs alike with the means to justify 23 dinars per person for a dinner and a show often leave the country in the summer, and I was unable to find a single friend still in Jordan who was able to go.

I couldn’t imagine a better place to hold an iftaar show – looking out over the distant lights of Amman

Thankfully, the fact that our choir is still majority Arab, with large families and strong familial ties, meant that we were able to pull through in the nick of time and get the sales we needed. Action Target had a great stage set up for us (although it was probably not for us but for their singer a few nights ago, the “Voice of Jordan” Omar Abdullat) complete with outdoor seating, below-lit palm trees, and a bar that was still serving alcohol – amazing. I saw more than a few people in the crowd casually and furtively emptying silver flasks into glasses though; ahh, the tradition of Ramadan fasting and the government closing all liquor stores and most bars is only equaled by the tradition of circumventing these laws, both religious and secular alike.

All and all, we were there from around 5 to warm up and get ready til 11:30. The sun set at exactly 7:25 and people immediately dug into the buffet line of pastas, Chinese stir-frys, and of course the required Arabic mezze appetizers like hummous, salads, and kubbeh. Still no mensaf, though (the traditional Jordanian dish) – frankly, I’m always disappointed when these massive restaurant/catered iftaars can’t carry the national dish. Haven’t seen a single one do it thus far.

Seating was done in big tables of 10. If you didn’t bring quiz night teammates with you, you could make some new friends at your table!

The quiz aspect of the night’s events started soon after the meal, with the full choir only doing a few small numbers and the majority of our time onstage dedicated to solos or duets of popular music. We had musicals – both Western and Arab – and Disney music to sing. Amusingly enough, apparently Egypt’s massive film industry translates Disney classics into Egyptian colloquial and so we had people doing “Bibbity Bobbiby Boo” and “Hakuna Matata,” in Egyptian. For that reason, we were sure to remind people that their quiz night teams should definitely be made up of people from both cultures – what a great way to foster intercultural cooperation!

Personally, I did “Kiss The Girl,” from The Little Mermaid. Some of the women in the choir volunteered to be the “sha la la la” girls in the background, doing their own little dance, and Um Tulip provided a couple snorkel headpieces, too. By the time I had practiced this piece and our choreography, I was sad that we were only doing little bits of each song…I wanted to sing the whole thing!