Today we talked about the Corona Virus outbreak in Bethlehem, Palestine, and also the old folk tale of Al Rozana. The song “Al Rozana (ع الروزانا)” is a folk song native to the region of the Levant or بلاد الشام, ie Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. There are many versions of the folk tale, but one of the stories behind it is that at the height of the intense wheat famine that the region experienced at the beginning of the 20th century, an Italian or Turkish ship called “The Rosanna” was said to have been sent carrying food to the starving population of the Levant. Everybody was waiting in anticipation for the ship’s arrival, but when it finally landed as the story goes in the song, it was carrying nothing but apples and grapes, one of the foods that the region was actually overflowing with at that time. The people cursed the ship for this reason. So this song has become a classic in the Levant region, and in many social gatherings around food or drinks, people play instruments like the oud or the tabla and will all sing this song, since most people know the lyrics and can sing along.
Find the story of the song with translation here: http://www.arabicmusictranslation.com/2009/09/rosanna-al-rozana.html