Often noted as being one of the holy trinity of music posing as the son, Tamino is a Belgian-Egyptian singer with many hits songs such as Indigo Night, Sunflower, Habibi, Persephone, Cigar as well as many others. His self titled album Amir, blends together his Egyptian heritage with music from Belgium. In this album he collaborates with a group of Arabic musicians in Brussels called Nagham Zikrayat, according to last FM. This album encapsulates the range of emotions that come with love from romance to desolation.

I see myself in Tamino’s craft not only in his heritage, but in his words. The songs throughout this album resonate with me so deeply and pull me to the experiences of my life with the flow of the words. As I have been learning guitar for a while, the first song I picked myself to learn was Tummy. The song explores self identity and the struggle of ones actions, with the music video aiding this. It can be interpreted from his gold body paint and clothes dressing him up as a Pharaoh that this is in relation to his Egyptian heritage. However, in the music video he acts as a street performer and find people to be obsessed with him. When he returns home he tries to wipe away the paint but it won’t come off. The interpretation this draws from me is that when people discover he’s part Egyptian, that is the only part of him they recognize. I myself have experienced this first hand when I tell people I was born in Egypt. In their eyes I am now “exotic”. The second part about him trying to scrub away the paint can be seen as him having imposter syndrome. Even though he is Egyptian, he has very little connection to the country having only lived in it for 3 years before moving away after his parents divorce. He thinks of himself not worthy to be called Egyptian for that reason but the gold paint won’t wash away, reminding him that this is who he is and can’t be changed.

It is for these reasons that I chose to learn this song. I spend most of my free time playing it on the guitar at home in the evenings because it is one that I can relax to whilst practicing my skills. To make this a reality I worked collaboratively with Mr Marlon, who teaches me guitar.

After many hours spent strumming chords, I found the pattern within the song and whilst singing it in my head could play it with minimal reference to the notes. Below I have attached a snippet of me playing the song. I hope that in the future I will be able to know all the chords and how to play them, and from there will be able to pick up songs by ear alone. However far into the future this may be it is something I look forward to with immense delight.

Featured Image Credit: Still from Tummy Music Video on Tamino’s Youtube Channel