Representative Albums: "1st Born Second", "Hadi Hala"
Representative Songs: "Soul Sista"
Biography
For Bilal Sayeed Oliver, dreams started falling into place quite rapidly. A self-confessed jazz junkie from Philadelphia, PA, Bilal started out by singing in small clubs until he began training in jazz and big-band arrangements at the Mannes Music Conservatory in New York. With this formal training, the singer/songwriter learned to sing opera in seven languages. His debut album, 1st Born Second, is a collection of songs entirely by the artist himself, right down to the music, lyrics, and notes. His single "Soul Sista" appears on the Love & Basketball movie soundtrack. In addition, Bilal sang the hook on Common's "The 6th Sense" with neo-soul singer Jill Scott. He also scats and plays keyboards. Bilal has appeared on Common's Like Water for Chocolate, Guru's Jazzmatazz, Vol. 3: Street Soul, and has written and produced for the likes of Erykah Badu. Bilal, the same musician who has called jazz "the original booty shake," is also known for heaping truth in his music. Talks of record contracts came about when Bilal met brothers Fa and Damu Mtume, creators of Moyo Entertainment, in 1995 at a Philly barbershop. After hearing his demo, the Mtumes asked Bilal if he was interested in becoming a recording artist. Eventually Bilal moved to Brooklyn, NY, and began gigging around the city until his tape landed in the hands of Erykah Badu, for whose Mama's Gun album he appeared and produced. Bilal is a member of the Soulquarians collective, along with Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, Q-Tip, and D'Angelo. ~ Kerry L. Smith, All Music Guide
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Bilal is a Gipsy singer from Lebanon, who is notable for singing not only in Arabic, but mainly in Domari, his native language, that of the Doms, the nomadic community he belongs to. He is most known for being the only notorious Dom artist.
Bin Bella Al-Hunteer, born in 1983, also known as Bilal, the Arab Gipsy Prince, comes from the Dom people, a GipsyMiddle Eastern ethnic group that Gadjos call the “Nawar” in Arabic. Like most nomadic Domi families, Bilal's clan constantly moves from one place to another throughout the Middle East. To earn their wage during their stops, grown up men play musical instruments and sing, and women dance and tell good fortune. As for young boys, they often work as shoeshiners in large cities such as Damascus, Beirut & Istanbul.
Musical career
Bilal was a shoeshine boy when Greek-LebaneseproducerMichel Elefteriades met him after he heard him singing an Arab Gipsy song while shining a customer's shoes on the sidewalk near his Beirut office. This was in 1997 and Bilal was only 14 years old. Elefteriades was immediately struck by his young voice and felt the artistic potential the young man had for future success. Moreover, being an eminent tziganologist, he was eager to launch a successful career for an artist who comes from the Dom community and to reflect its impact positively on the image of Gypsies around the Arab world. As Bilal was illiterate and had never been to school, Elefteriades started and supported both his general and musical education, also providing him with the necessary skills and assets that would enable him to put up with the stress and responsibilities of future stardom.
Bilal performing on stage
In 2002, Bilal started performing in concerts and was guest to major Arab TV shows on the Middle East's prime satellitetelevision networks. The peak of his success story was his appearance at the most prestigious performing arts festival in the Arab world, the Baalbeck International Festival. Bilal’s recordings include, for the first time in history, songs in the gipsy language known as Domari, a language that Bilal has noticed to be very close to Romani, as he was able to communicate with his Rom cousins from Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, each speaking their own mother tongue.
Struggling for a cause
In addition to being an artist, Bilal is also working actively for the recognition of his people, the Dom, who still live in poor conditions. Results of his struggle are starting to show, as more people are realizing that the "Nawar" have a rich cultural heritage that deserves to be known and recognized.
