This may be something you want to keep under wraps and not open until Saturday week in the privacy of your living room.

I can’t resist sharing a retrieved video of the great Lebanese singer Fairouz, still in her 20s, taking one of the season’s favourites in cultivated microtones.

The title is Leilet Eid – you may know it by another name – and I’d be surprised if you ask for your money back, even if the opening wouldn’t quite make it into Mahler’s fourth symphony.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqn_ryespBk&NR=1

and here’s the artist in her youth.

This may be something you want to keep under wraps and not open until Saturday week in the privacy of your living room.

I can’t resist sharing a retrieved video of the great Lebanese singer Fairouz, still in her 20s, taking one of the season’s favourites in cultivated microtones.

The title is Leilet Eid – you may know it by another name – and I’d be surprised if you ask for your money back, even if the opening wouldn’t quite make it into Mahler’s fourth symphony.

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqn_ryespBk&NR=1

and here’s the artist in her youth.

My colleague Fiona Maddocks has just tweeted that Eileen Cooper has been elected Keeper at the Royal Academy, the first woman to hold the post since Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Angelika Kauffman and 31 others founded the RA in Piccadilly in 1768. The Keeper, elected for three years, is responsible for the art school, an often turbulent role.

My colleague Fiona Maddocks has just tweeted that Eileen Cooper has been elected Keeper at the Royal Academy, the first woman to hold the post since Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Angelika Kauffman and 31 others founded the RA in Piccadilly in 1768. The Keeper, elected for three years, is responsible for the art school, an often turbulent role.