RootsConnection presents:

The Story Of Ibrahim Bizza

Shortly before midnight on Saturday, 30 August 1997, the carin which Princess D. was travelling was involved in a high-speed accident in the Place de l'Alma underpass in central Paris. A few hours later Princess D. died. What exactly happened in the evening before this terrible car-crash woke the world from its peaceful sleep? Who was involved in the events, preceding the tragic accident, which has created one more legend (to add to the numerous others)? We don't really know and we never will.

Little do we know about the backgrounnd of the accident and the life of the man who had inseparable ties to the tragedy, Ibrahim Bizza. one year after the accident, Rick Portman reflected in the Daily Times about the personality of Ibrahim Bizza: "The meeting with Ibrahim Bizza was - besides the clubing of seal pups in the Atlantic Ocean - one of the most lasting and moving experiences of my life. To this day I have never met such a scintilating and iridescent character. During thes moral and senseless times, Ibrahim Bizza could have lead mankind to a glorious 21st century. It's fucked that he failed."

Nevertheless the tragic incident linked two lifes - Ibrahim Bizza's and Princess D.'s - and made them both legends ... and a song. The decision to make a song about Ibrahim Bizza came in summer 1997, when Peek-A-Boo observed Ibrahim Bizza in a shopping center in Vienna, listening to an artificial waterfall in the 5th floor and staring at a photo, showing Princess D., tying her shoelaces.

So lock the door to your danceroom now, turn the lights off, put the CD (or click this sound sample) on and fall into a trance to

THE STORY OF IBRAHIM BIZZA

The first time I saw Ibrahim was in a Vienna street café
As many other people too he liked some sugar in his tea
But you never could imaging in what ... alarming portions

Big and swollen hands he had grasping at the sugar-basin
He poured the whole contents in his mouth without a motion in his face
And with a loud noise he siped the coffee in ... through the gap of his front teeth

Put your feet on the ground
Put your hands on your heart
Lift your head to the stars
Take the sun from the sky
Throw salt over your shoulder
Plug tooth-paste in your ear
Have always big respect for the story of Ibrahim Bizza

You never knew what Ibrahim was thinking of the life, the people, the political stuff
The whole day he walked around in town no job, no hobbies and never a companion
A lonely still stone in the breakers without an emotion

Just one single point there was when you cold see thet Ibrahim was human
At midnight he turned this TV on and waited on edge for the national anthem
A big fat tear in his eyes betrayed pure luck

To really understand what's going on I tell you about the end of Ibrahim

He was a big admirer of Lady D. and followed her to London, New York, Paris
The biggest fear for Ibrahim was that she steps on a landmine

Paris in august of 97 Ibrahim lived in the Ritz Hotel
He met Dianas driver in the hotel bar payed him a lot of drinks, just to see her car two hours later you heard it everywhere that Diana was dead

When Ibrahim heard the message his eyes began to gloom
his swollen hands were trembling his mouth was driveling
Grey color in his ugly face, an insect from the outer space
Lost in time and lost in sin ... and meaning