Zein Al-Jundi has a graduate degree in architecture, which was her dream, but a serious accident altered the course of her path to a career of performance.
Al-Jundi was featured on the 2008 Putumayo compilation "Acoustic Arabia," for which she also wrote the liner notes, and her song "Ajmal Gharam" is featured on the July, 2012 Putumayo compilation release, "Arabic Beat"; "Ajmal Gharam is also on her full-length CD, "Sharrafouni," which was released in 2010.
"Ajmal Gharam" (the most beautiful love) is "the ultimate love story for anybody who's so madly, passionately in love with someone," said Al-Jundi.
Her first CD, which was released in 2004, featured all traditional Syrian songs, and since then she has moved on to more contemporary Arabic music, a reflection of the development that is happening in the Middle East.
"I never thought that everybody would know where Holms is in the worst possible circumstances," said Al-Jundi, "but I was born there, we moved to Damascus when I was about five, and I lived there until I moved here about 30 years ago."
The war in Syria is in the worldwide press on a daily basis, with places like Holms and Damascus two of the hotbeds for fighting and violence. Both places are close to her heart, and she said she still has friends in the country who are trying to stay safe.
"Everybody's alive, everybody's unharmed, everybody's not OK," said Al-Jundi.
- More information about Al-Jundi is online at: www.zeinal-jundi.com
