In our online classes we sing our own adaptation of “Wala WaHed,” an electrifying song by Hakim, one of the main superstars of the Egyptian genre called SHAABI, which arose in the 1970’s as the “music of the streets.” Hakim, who was born and raised in the small, working class Egyptian town of Maghagha, aspired to be a singer from a young age. He related to Shaabi as pioneered by Egyptian musician and film star Ahmed Adaweya. The song “Wala WaHed” is the passionate declaration that the object of the singer’s love is a one-in-a-million catch. Technicaly, in increasingly overpopulated Egypt, that would indicate that there are roughly 100 of them . . . but I think we know that the song means.
Tag Archives | Hakim
Takin’ it to Egyptian street…with Hakim
Let’s meet music of the Egyptian “working class” with our dear friend Hakim.
In the 1970s, when recordable cassettes made popular music accessible to people all over the world who had little money, several genres of “cassette culture” music developed around the world–punk music in England, for example, rai in Algeria, Jamaican reggae and, in Egypt, shaabi (translated as “music of the common people.”) Today’s famous shaabi singers, like Abdel Hakim Abdel Samad Kamel — Hakim! — continue this tradition by using their lyrics to skewer politicians and confront social problems in an artistically direct way. Watch Hakim wow an audience — delightfully, with the aid of bubbles.
