Singer or Not?

 Look at the man in the picture. His name is Shaban. I am not sure you don't know who he is unless you come from the Middle East. He is famous there but there is an interesting story about his career.

First of all he didn't go to school and he doesn't know how to read the alphabet. He started to work at an early age to support himself and his family. His job was to iron clothes for a few cents a day. When he worked, he used to sing. He had a voice that was not good enough.  Poor people who could not afford to pay professional singers to perform at their weddings always asked Shaban to sing for them.

He was happy to do so because he was dreaming of becoming famous one day. He didn't think his voice was horrible at all. His early songs were not well written and the music was not good at all.

Every week he used to sing at weddings. When he had enough money, he released an album that had a few songs. The songs were written by his next door neighbour. The people who bought his album were mainly poor and uneducated. He had limited success until one day he sold 4 million albums. Most of the people who bought the album were not poor or uneducated. They were angry people.

How did this happen? How did he become the most famous singer in the Middle East overnight?

 It started when Israel killed a Palestinian boy called Mohamed El Dorra in a street in Palestine. There were some French photographers and cameramen who happened to be at the same place. They took a video of the boy and his father who was trying to protect him.

That day the whole world saw the killing on TV channels and people were angry.

Shaban released a song called "I hate Israel". He talked about killing Palestinians, the destruction of Iraq and other problems in the Middle East. His song became a big hit and he sold millions of copies in a short time.

He travelled to different countries and thousands of people went to airports to receive him. People believed what he said because they thought their leaders told them lies.

After his famous album, he released songs about the American invasion of Iraq and how people in the Middle East suffer from actions by other countries. Millions of people downloaded his songs from the internet and he became a guest in different TV shows.

Did Shaban make money after selling millions of copies of his album? He made almost nothing. He didn't make a lot of money. He was only paid 1200 dollars by the music company that helped him record it. They got all the money.

His next door neighbour still writes his new songs. Shaban does not iron clothes for customers now. He is a professional singer. He has three sons. They have the same job. They are all singers.