Aldo (the musician, not the shoe store)

Aldo is an Australian born singer whose music falls in the genre of "Franco-Arabic" music. His "West meets East" style was very popular in the Middle East in the mid 90s. His album "Yalla" in particular was well received and he had three hits from it. Aldo's parents were European. They immigrated to Australia, one from Italy and one from Germany. As a teenager, Aldo experimented with bands called 'Nautilus', 'Diablos', and 'Rivali'. One was a rock 'n' roll band and the others, Italian cabaret bands so it is evident that he liked to dabble in many different types of music. He even took opera lessons! This may be why he decided to fuse different types of music together so that so many different audiences could enjoy it.

It probably helped that his wife was Egyptian. He realized that he had a love for Middle Eastern culture and made many contacts from his performances throughout the Middle East. Back in Australia, he worked with Arabic migrant communities as well.

Aldo even helped create "Arabic Radio" in the early 90s which was a radio program that he ran along with his brother-in-law and an Egyptian composer. He had many native Arabic speaking presenters on his radio show. It was credited as being a bridge between Western and Eastern culture, unlike some other radio shows of the time that were accused of being "too Western".

Because of the show, he was invited to sing at an Arabic function where they wanted him to sing at least one song in Arabic. Though he had doubts, friends and family helped him learn a song and it became a hit. He then went on to record many more songs in Arabic with a rock 'n' roll style. The link below is one of these from his record named Yalla.

Aldo's music is counter-hegemonic because instead of being Western or Eastern, it's an asymmetrical blend with elements of European or Western music and Egyptian or Middle Eastern influences. The only problem is that it still uses these binaries to describe it. When you say "West meets East", you think of two separate entities coming together, each with a beginning and end. The goal is to show that they can be intertwined without it being two separate entities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrXl3eNtbSA