Natacha Atlas is a Gateway Drug.

I remember the first time I heard "metal". I liked it but it was a bit off putting, and felt a bit wrong ( but oh so right) There was an angry aggressive somewhat dark part of myself that really connected with it, and still does. Shortly after my introduction to metal I started listening to Metallica, Overkill, Iron Maiden (this was the late 80's/early 90's). I sort of became a headbanger. I have loved metal and most of its hybrids ever since, but it took some getting used to.

Ditto with the first time I heard Middle Eastern music. It was at a bellydance show, and there was an Armenian band playing. I was 8 or 9, and I remember it made me feel.....exotic, passionate, and like my body couldn't help but move. Middle Eastern music has that effect on me, I just have to move.
    Once I got serious with bellydance I started with Solace, and a lot of tribal music. That Amir Diab, Somaya, and Nawal stuff just sounded too raw to me, too foreign. My ear could only handle it in short bursts. Solace, Helm, and all of the other Tribal-ly stuff gave me my Middle Eastern music fix, without the in-between notes.(which is an actual thing, ME artists use something called quarter notes, which are not present on a Western scale). Solace helped me get used to the music and the rhythms without any distracting singing. It was safe and predictable, almost lulling. This was before Fusion really exploded, so there wasn't really any bleed over. Tribal stuff sounded Tribal. I started to have this inner itch after a while, though, and that music just didn't satisfy me anymore.
   Then I found Natacha Atlas.  My teacher of all teachers, Donna used to have us warm up to "I Put a Spell On You", and I loved Natacha's smoky voice, and western-eastern blend. Natacha Atlas is like Middle- Eastern- music-lite. She is mostly Egyptian, so she has the feel of an Arabic singer, her voice has that passion. But the music wasn't so Arabic that I felt like an outsider. I bought one CD. Then another. She sings in three different languages ( Arabic, French, and English), and after a while I started listening to only the Arabic language ones. Then one day Natacha was not Middle Eastern enough for me. ( but I still love her..:)
      Now I consider myself a (still learning) Lebanese, and Egyptian pop fan. I like the kind of whine that translates the quarter tones to my ears. I am still discovering singers, some I like, some not so much. But there is nothing to me like the feel of that genre of music.

      Trust me, to friends and family, it is like having a passion for polka. or harpsichord. or Chinese wind instrument music. or something equally annoying to everyone within earshot, but that you love and can't get enough of.

example:

A few weeks ago at our last family gathering

the men in my rather large family were sitting at the table playing poker, the kids were running around, the women were chatting and cooking, and I was fiddling with the Ipod player.

Me: "Ya'll wanna listen to some Nawal El Zoghbi?

Everyone and I mean everyone stopped what they were doing, looked up at me and emphatically said "NO!". "No More Middle Eastern music!".
Then my brother and father started sympathizing with " my poor husband" about being subjected to "listening to that" all of the time.

Fine. I'll just take my music elsewhere. (pouting). I didn't want to share it with you anyway.