Zein Al-Jundi was born and raised in Damascus, Syria. She began singing professionally at the early age of five and over the next 12 years became a household name on Syria’s radio and TV channels as well as concert halls.
Upon finishing high school she chose to leave the music world behind and pursue and college education in the US. She attended the University of Texas at Austin where she still resides and received an undergraduate degree in Architecture and completed the coarse work of a masters in Urban Design.
Discovering it was a passion that didn’t die in spite of years of not singing, Zein made the decision to go back to her music which has since taken more of a center stage in her life and what occupies her time.
November of 2004 marked the release of her first CD Traditional Songs from Syria on ARC Music. It was recorded in Cairo, Egypt with Hossam Ramzy producer.
Her CD Sharrafouni was released on her independent label WMD Productions Music. It was recorded mainly in Beirut, Lebanon and in Damascus, Syria as well as Cairo, Egypt with Zein herself as artistic and executive producer. Michel Fadel (of LBC’s Star Academy and world class pianist and composer/arranger) arranged the majority of the songs on the CD.
Ralph El Khoury (of The REG Project) did most of the mixing and sound engineering. Other people Zein was honored to work with on this CD include Tareq Abou Jawdeh, Elia Nasser, Andre Hajj, Tony Ja’ja’, Tony Barrak, Ali Mazbouh, Tony Haddad and more. Sharrafouni is also Zein’s debut as a composer and songwriter.
In addition to her music Zein is also the owner of The Arabic Bazaar & Zein’s Dance Studio that are located in Austin, Texas. The first being an import business and retail store of hand-crafted beautiful treasures from Syria, Egypt and Morocco…..the second is the school where she teaches her bellydance classes.
WMD Productions is the umbrella that covers all of Zein’s projects and the company thru which she produces her events of Arabic music and dance, including her own live music shows, the Arabic Hafleh and Austin’s Arabian Nights.
Discography:
Traditional Songs from Syria
Songs From Syria (ARC Music, 2004)
Sharrafouni
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
Beautiful Syrian songs and beautiful singer. I am proudly Identified with Zein Al-Jundi; I speak Spanish and Arabic, both are my “technically” native languages because my parents emigrated from Syria to Venezuela in 1977 when I was 17 years old. I feel I am privileged to have multicultural points of view; Latin American and Middle Eastern ones. By the time I realized that any culture is so original and beautiful in its own context.