Ya Mustafa
Encyclopedia
Ya Mustafa, also spelled Ya Mustapha (in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 يا مصطفى) , is a famous Egyptian song of unclear origin, whose lyrics are composed in 3 different languages: Arabic, French and Italian. There are also versions in the Greek and Turkish languages, where they are very popular in the respective countries ("Μουσταφά"). The music of the song is similar to Greek music. It was very popular in the 1950s and early 1960s.

This song, with its Greek style music and polyglotic lyrics, can be considered as a historical tribute to the cosmopolitan era in the Egyptian city of Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

. During that era, a large cosmopolitan polyglotic community, mainly Greeks
Greeks in Egypt
-Antiquity:Greeks have been living in Egypt since the ancient times. Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century BC, claimed that the Greeks were one of the first foreigners that ever lived in Egypt. Diodorus Siculus attested that Rhodian Actis, one of the Heliadae built the city of Heliopolis...

, Jews and Italians, lived in Alexandria. A sizable portion lived in the Attarine district, where the events of the song takes place.

The refrain of the song is "Chérie je t'aime, chérie je t'adore, como la salsa del pomodoro" (Darling, I love you, darling, I adore you, like tomato sauce).

Versions

The song has been performed in many different versions by many different singers worldwide. One of the earliest singers to record this song in the 1950s was the Turkish
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

-French singer Dario Moreno
Darío Moreno
Darío Moreno was a Turkish polyglot singer of Jewish origin, as well as an accomplished composer, lyricist and guitarist, who was born in Aydın, Turkey, in 1921, and who attained fame and made a remarkable career centered in France which also included films, during the fifties and the...

.

The song became popular in Europe with the help of the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian-born Palestinian
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 singer Bob Azzam
Bob Azzam
Bob Azzam was a Lebanese singer. With his international hit song "Mustapha", Azzam achieved success in France in the 1960s. The track peaked at #23 in the UK Singles Chart, spending fourteen weeks in that chart...

, who released it in 1960 in France. Azzam's version was also a hit on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

, where it spent 14 weeks and peaked at number 23.

In Spain, in 1960, the song reached #1 in the charts in both versions sung by Bob Azzam
Bob Azzam
Bob Azzam was a Lebanese singer. With his international hit song "Mustapha", Azzam achieved success in France in the 1960s. The track peaked at #23 in the UK Singles Chart, spending fourteen weeks in that chart...

 and by José Guardiola
José Guardiola
José Guardiola, is a Spanish singer of popular music who sang in Spanish and Catalan. He did mostly Spanish versions of foreign songs and reached his maximum fame in Spain and Latin America in the early 1960s with versions of songs like Sixteen Tons, Mack the Knife and Ya Mustafa...

 http://rateyourmusic.com/list/ferysingles/1__singles_spain_espana__59_69_/. Bruno Gigliotti, the brother of famous singer Dalida
Dalida
Dalida , born with Italian name of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, was a world-famous singer and actress born in Egypt with Italian origins but naturalised French with the name Yolanda Gigliotti. She spent her early years in Egypt amongst the Italian Egyptian community, but she lived most of her adult...

, also covered the song. Kyu Sakamoto also sang a version of this song in Japanese.

In 1975, the Turkish Cypriot actress and singer Nil Burak
Nil Burak
Pembe Nihal Munsif , better known as Nil Burak, is a Turkish Cypriot pop singer and actress who is famous in Turkey.-Biography:...

 sang "Ya Mustafa". The song was also copied by the Indian composers Nadeem-Shravan
Nadeem-Shravan
Nadeem-Shravan was a music director duo in the Bollywood film industry of India. The duo derives its name from the first names of its two principals, Nadeem Saifi and Shravan Rathod....

. Other singers who reproduced exactly the same song include the Lebanese singer Reeda Boutros and the American singer and actress Angélica María
Angélica María
Angélica María Hartman Ortiz is an Mexican-American actress and a Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter. She is a legendary entertainer and is known as La Novia de Mexico .-Early life:...

.

According to many Egyptians the song originated as a kind of "resistance" during the French imperial days around 1780 - before the battle of Aboukir in any event. The idea was that the name "Moustaffa" is an alternative name for Mohammed, which the French had banned along with all forms of Islamic worship. So by singing it the locals were "putting their tongues out " at the French, it was an added bonus when the song became popular amongst the French who also sang it - much to the quiet amusement of their subjects.

Appearances

The song featured in a few Egyptian movies, including one starring the Egyptian actor Ismail Yassin in the 1950s, and another film featuring Sabah
Sabah (singer)
Sabah , Wadi Chahrour, Lebanon is a Lebanese singer and actress.She has released over 50 albums and has acted in 98 movies, as well as 20 stage plays...

from the same era.
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