Be it his songs in the 90s or the videos of these impromptu renditions during the pandemic in Goa, singer-songwriter Lucky Ali always offers music for the soul. His latest song, Amaraya (‘mirror’ in Arabic), talks about rising above our differences by recognising that we are all but reflections of the other.
A cross-cultural collaboration with Israeli singer-songwriter Eliezer Cohen Botzer, featuring Ali, the song spanning across four languages Arabic, Hindi, Urdu and Hebrew is the second song of their album Lemalla. It was written by Lucky Ali, Ozair Abdul Aleem, Botzer and composed by Ori Avni, Botzer and Lucky Ali.
Lemalla was born when the two free-spirited artistes, from two different parts of the world, crossed paths in 2017. “A few years ago, on the recommendation of our management, I was in search of a collaborator from India. When I came across Lucky’s voice, I was fascinated by his depth, his songs, his humanity and felt a connection instantly. We started with an idea of a song and three years later, one song took the shape of an entire album called Lemalla,” Botzer recalls. Ali, in turn says he likes the idea of collaboration, and promptly said yes.
“They came to my farm in Bengaluru. Things took a natural course, we became friends and then the music happened. For me, the album has been a process of discovery in itself. While we were working on the project we also realised we had more similarities, culture wise as well. Lemalla, in Hebrew means, to a space that is higher than the thoughts that we operate on a daily basis that is an aspiration more than a goal.”
Ali adds that while the two come from diverse cultures and languages, “we are yearning for the same satisfaction of life. Through our process of this association, the music we discovered brought about a certain understanding and sensitivity towards each other’s concerns; and found out that everybody feels the same. What was there was from the heart and the moment was right for our times.”
The artistes feel every part of Amaraya is a different station in the same journey. The expressions are in their native languages, and their translation comes in the form of subtitles with the video. About working on the song, Botzer says, “We completed the production of this song and the clip a month ago.
The distance factor in fact became an advantage for us in this project. It allowed us to travel and spend meaningful time together in both the countries and to create a true friendship that is expressed in the songs.”
The first song of the album titled On My Way was released in November 2019, and Amaraya will be followed by five or six more songs. Botzer, a troubadour, the kind who lives what he writes and writes what he lives, says, “On My Way is about the journey home. We didn’t know then what lay ahead of us. The pandemic didn’t skip on any country, religion or mentality. And in a very short time we all had a new perspective of home. This is a time of finding true empathy of mutual responsibility between all humans. While praying for the end of the pandemic god willing, we are sharing our second song - a song of unity and connection between all humans and creation.”
While the duo is looking are forward to releasing the entire Lemalla album, they hope to perform it live to a physical audience someday.