Ziad el Rahbani’s Sheep

Many bloggers have already posted this video of a dispute at Ziad el Rahbani’s concert which took place a few days ago:

But I’m actually baffled by the reaction of some of the people attending. There’s a limit to how much crap you can take from an artist. He was 90 minutes late, the event’s organization was a royal mess – and yet because he’s Ziad, no one is allowed to complain?

Spare me the hipstery all-hail-to-Ziad attitude. I am not a Ziad el Rahbani fan and after the above video, I will never be. I will never listen to his plays nor will I quote his useless lines nor will I be taken by his music. There are plenty of much better musicians out there that he can only dream of approaching that I’d rather listen to.

What can I make out of an artist that doesn’t respect his fanbase enough to even apologize for wasting over an hour and a half of their time while they sat and waited for him and then has the decency to actually call them out for speaking up?

That’s not an artist I can respect.

What do you make out of an artist that treats the people who were pissed because he was late so callously and is met by applause from an audience who stood by him, non-caring about the time of their life that was wasted?

I’m sure his plays have some “witty” line about apologies somewhere. I won’t bother. The only sheep here are those who blindly worship everything this man touches and who don’t give a rat’s ass about their time which was wasted and who actually call his reply as “polite.”

The sad part is his “fans” believe that people don’t have the right to complain because Ziad is sharing their art with them. They actually think the people complaining are doing so because they’re bothered by his success – as if they would have bothered snatching up those rare and pricey tickets in the first place if the only thing they wanted to do was cause a riot at the concert.

In any decent country, this delay would have warranted a refund. Except in Ziad el Rahbani land, an artist that wants your money and wants to insult you for wanting to get your money’s worth.

“Iza mannak mabsout, 3a shou ba3dak hon?” Ye2ta3 habal l 3alam yalli mfakkrin enno heik shi ma2boul.