No, I am not bad at geography. I know Beirut is the capital of Lebanon and not a city in Turkey. However, did you know that Beirut is big in Turkey? I am talking about one of my favorite bands, Beirut. I had the amazing experience of seeing them live this past summer at Lollapalooza and it may have been the best live performance I have witnessed of any band. Their encore however, was not on any of their EPs or LPs. Once I finally found the set list from the show, I discovered it is a cover of an old Turkish folk song, Şiki Şiki Baba.
I decided my one mission while in Turkey this past week (besides scoring some awesome harem pants for travel in Morocco next month), was to find out what Şiki Şiki Baba is all about. I asked our tour guide and he had no idea.
Later in the week, we had dinner with Turkish students from Bilgi University at a traditional Turkish food restaurant. I thought I would give it a shot and asked the girl next to me if she knew what the song meant. She explained to me, after consulting with her friends, that the song is just a non-sense, fun song. But her question for me was, “How do you know about Şiki Şiki Baba?” Fair enough. So I told her how one of my favorite bands did a cover of it this summer at the music festival I attended. When I said it was Beirut, she freaked. She and her friends ecstatically explained how much they love Beirut and how popular in Turkey he is. However, she thought they were from the Middle East and I corrected her that they are from America. I learn from her, she learns from me. Anyhow, I just thought it was neat that I finally found out what the song means and that Beirut is more popular in Turkey possibly than in America.
Live performance of Şiki Şiki Baba by Beirut
Allie Abroad 