The 4 Cats
- For the Barcelona café, see Els Quatre Gats.
The 4 Cats (Arabic: الفور كاتس) is a Lebanese band made up of four female singers. The 4 Cats was the first all-female Lebanese pop group. Their first album ( Tick Tick) remained at number one on Arabic top charts for more than four months and more than one million copies of it were sold.[1] The members in the band have changed frequently and until today (2016).
The first album
After releasing their first album the girls released their second album in the summer of 2000. But before that the band faced another situation of changing a member and this time it was Chantal Kayssar. Chantal had to leave the band because she married Elie Nakouzi. She was replaced by Perla. After that they released their song "Layl Nhar" "Day & Night" which was featured on the album as a video clip and also was the title of the album. In winter of 2000, the band released their 2nd video clip entitled "Ma Ba'a Eida" "I'll Never Do It Again".
Three members out
The band's third album was scheduled to be released October 15, 2001, but instead the band faced another change in its members for the third time. Three members; Zaina, Nicole Saba and Perla, left the band without giving any reasons to the media. The three girls were replaced with three other girls: Maya Diab, Nisrine and Natalie.
The third album
The band released a video clip entitled "Tal Intizari" in the beginning of 2002 followed up by their not commercialized album which had the same name. The band wasn't that successful during that period of time and disappeared till the summer of 2003. In that summer the band released another video clip from this album, the song was "Rah Hibak Ala Tool" "I'll Always Love You". The only difference in the song was that Natalie's part was replaced with another part that had the same words but sung by a different girl called Nada. But after a short period of time Nada left the band and was replaced with Rana, then Nisreen Zreik left and was replaced by Perla who rejoined the band but only for a short period. Another member also joined the band called Joyce instead of Perla.
The fourth album and the new girl
In the beginning of 2004 the band had to welcome another member called Raya. Raya is Dalida's sister. The band signed a contract with Rotana and released their first ever song with them entitled "Ya Antar". Another album with the same name was released. After 2 months the girls released another song called "Mashi El-Tofnees". After that Dalida and Ghassan got married and they invited all the previous members of the band to the wedding.
The fifth album and the last member change
In the end of that year the band released a song called "Nihna Mnsro'" "We Steal". the song was featured on the album that was released in 2005 under the name of "El Dinya Hiek" which was a song featured on the album and was the 2nd video clip to be released from the album. After the band released "Nihna Mnsro'" Goyce left the band and was replaced by Aline.
New line-up
The 4 Cats changed line-ups and released a new video called "Sho2 El Ayam" which is from their previous 4th album "Ya Antar" with its new line up of girls. It failed to attract viewership and sponsors and later released another low budget video of their multi-track medley.[when?]
Albums
- 1998 Tick-Tick
- 2000 Layl Nhar
- 2002 Tal Ntizari
- 2004 Ya Antar
- 2005 El Donya Heik
- 2007 Wallat Kteer[2]
References
- ^ Sheehan, Sean; Latif, Zawiah Abdul; Schmermund, Elizabeth (2017-04-15). Lebanon. Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-1-5026-2612-7.
- ^ "The 4 Cats". fanoos.com. Retrieved 2020-06-13.