A Star on the rise

There are plenty of R&B singers gunning for success in the charts, but with his Arab background Amine is more likely than most to hit the big time in the Middle East.

The 23-year-old is already a major star in France, having reached the number one spot with his catchy single J'Voulais.

Born in Casablanca in Morocco, Amine has been feted for what is called Rai & B music — a mix of Rai and R&B — on his debut album, Au Dela Des Reves, which has now been released in Arabia.

As you might have guessed from the title of the album, Amine mainly sings in French.

Three tracks in Arabic

However, there are three tracks in which he performs in Arabic. Two of these songs are also performed in French on the album. W ith their hypnotic beats, among the best tracks are Amine's number one, J'Voulais, and its Arabic version, Leih Wizzay.

The other song that is performed in French and Arabic versions, Ma Vie and Atary, is another highlight, with nicely
harmonised vocals on the chorus.

Like J'Voulais, Ma Vie too was a hit in France. On My Girl the voice is given an electronic twist. If you remember the hit song Believe by Cher, in which her voice gets transformed by synthesisers for a few moments during the chorus, and then imagine that same effect for the whole song, then you get a flavour of what My Girl sounds like.

While on My Girl the voice transformation is fun, sadly on most of the other tracks the vocals sound slightly over-produced and artificial.

This is a shame as many of the songs themselves are excellent and they show Amine's skills at fusing musical styles.

Another downside is that it is sometimes hard to believe that it really is a man behind the microphone.

Amine's voice is so high-pitched that at first when I played the album I thought it was a woman on vocal duties.

On one track he sings "Who's that girl?" and I was rather left wondering the same thing.

Billy's new tracks

Filipino singer Billy Crawford is previewing a string of tracks from his forthcoming studio album on his MySpace website.

The 25-year-old, whose previous hits include Trackin', Urgently in Love and Bright Lights, has uploaded four
songs from his new long-player onto the site.

The tracks, Shoulda Known, Must Be That Body, Jump Off and In Love, have already been played thousands of times by fans. Billy's last long player was Big City, which was a hit in France and his native Philippines.