One of the greatest pleasures during a day out in any town center is stumbling across a fabulously talented busker, and Imad Fares certainly qualifies. This Algerian-born New Flamenco guitarist has been playing up a storm on YouTube. Imad has uploaded a series of videos of his performances across Poland.
Imad taught himself the guitar when he was young. Over the years, he mastered multiple styles, including Latin, jazz and flamenco. Imad states on his website that it was the act of teaching himself that “helped me to develop a great musical ear and master various techniques.”
Imad continued to develop his music by completing a bachelor’s degree in Musicology before studying at a jazz academy in Paris for another two years. During this time, he also studied musical arrangement, composition and harmonisation. Once he completed his time in Paris, a city whose beauty can only have enhanced his compositions and musicality, he moved to Poland. That’s when he took his music out onto the streets, busking regularly.
He started uploading his performances to YouTube and slowly but surely, his fame began to spread.
Imad’s YouTube channel now has 108,000 subscribers, and his most popular song, Amor Mio, has 3.4 million views. However, the song that has captured most people’s imagination is a song called Gipsy Kings which has been watched more than 40 million times on channels across YouTube.
The setting definitely helps. When the video begins, Imad is sitting in front of a beautiful fountain as people go about their business. When he starts to play, their steps slow and then stop, but when he starts playing finger-style, their mouths drop!
His fingers are so fast, and his movements so delicate that they almost seem to blur. It seems impossible only one set of hands is making this beautiful music. Unsurprisingly some of the crowd pick up the CDs he has on display, wanting to know who this exceptional guitarist is.
They are surely responding to the quality of his playing and the emotion that shines through. The song builds all the way to the end, and your spirit cannot help but rise along with it. The crowd is certainly feeling it, as there is a huge round of applause when he finishes. Be sure to watch this fabulous performance.
If you would like to see more from Imad Fares, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Instagram.