“Chay Binaânaâ” means mint tea. Most Arabs would write it “Chay bil na3na3”, but why not, there are no rules yet to arabic words written in latin letters.
As Zeezee turned out to be an advertising agency’s stunt, Naïma seems like a genuine article. Even if the whole thing is so terribly bad, it looks like a prank from an uninspired comedian looking for a buzz to kick-start a stalling career...
But why compare it to the Banana song, one might ask, the two have nothing in common? Actually they do. They're both obscene. Each in its own way.
Everything in Zeezee's stunt was nasty: the clip, the song and the message behind it all. While here, only few seconds in the video are truly improper. But these fews seconds are far worse than the whole Banana hoax.
Almost hafway through the song, we see a very young girl dancing when Naïma sings “And here’s the vision of the Orient girl / Who wears a touching light dress / She brings you back to Tales of Arabian Nights” (as per the unfortunate english subtitles).
This is particularly disturbing because of the erotic innuendo of the “Arabian nights lightly dressed girl” lyrics, associated with a child attempting a sensual belly dance.
Perhaps that was done candidly, without much thought. But in a time when, in many Arab countries, little girls are being sold as sex slaves, it's simply unacceptable.
© Claude El Khal, 2015