Egypt: Top songs from 2021 to keep you dancing and inspired
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Loading... - Dylan Reid
- 14 Jan 2022
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It might be almost impossible to pinpoint the most popular or successful music productions of the year, as is success really measurable? Should we follow the charts or count the views on YouTube or SoundCloud? Can success within a smaller community be dismissed? The Egyptian music scene is too rich to limit ourselves to the shiniest of colours.
Pop
Let’s begin with Egyptian pop music, which includes a few stars, such as Amr Diab, Mohamed Hamaki, Mahmoud El Esseily, Hamza Namira, among others, whose fame takes them to frequent performances at regional festivals.
1. Amr Diab, a megastar dubbed by his fans ‘El Hadaba’ (which loosely translates to ‘the mountain’) and referred to as ‘father of Mediterranean music’, has always topped the charts since the 1980s. After all, it is Diab who managed to redefine local pop music by creating an appealing marriage between Oriental Pop and Latin music. With over 30 albums under his belt, one of his latest, Sahran (2020), was among the top 10 most-streamed albums on Spotify Egypt in 2021.
2. Diab’s much younger pop counterpart, Mohamed Hamaki, has found himself at position 9 of the most streamed artists, with his two albums – Ya Fatenny released in 2021 and Kol Yom Men Dah (2019) – scooping 9th and 10th position, respectively.
3. Hamza Namira’s latest album, Mawloud Sanat 80 (Born in 1980), was a huge success in 2021, placing him within the category of most streamed albums on Spotify, while his music videos reached tens of millions of views on YouTube. For example, ‘Fady Shewaya’ (Are you free), released on 30 Dec 2020, has scored 190 million views to date.
4. The younger Mahmoud el-Esseily did not make it to the Spotify top 10 this year. However, his new music videos had their important moments throughout 2021. After all, Esseily never lets down his fans through his combination of sweet light pop and lyrics that speak about happiness and the pains of romantic relationships. Esseily’s music video ‘Hob ghalat’ (Wrong Love), released in January, was among his best hits, while ‘Baaet Maaya’ reached 10th place on the trending list of YouTube Egypt, shortly after its release in March.
Looking at numbers released by Spotify Egypt, one immediately notices how the heavyweights of Egypt’s pop are increasingly challenged by the younger generation of artists, who over the past few years have made their presence more felt in the musical scene.
Rap
Wegz, Marwan Pablo, Marwan Moussa, Abyusif are among the forefront performers shaping the local hip-hop, rap and trap music. The packaging offered by those musicians includes catchy rhythmic structures and lyrics that touch on the most mundane issues and often reflect on the daily joys and worries.
5. 23-year-old rapper Ahmed Ali, professionally known as Wegz, has been the most streamed artist for the second consecutive year, while four of his songs – ‘Asyad el Soot’ (released with LZHYMR), ‘3afareet el Asphalt’, ‘Msh Fair‘ and ‘Hustla‘ – were among the top 10 most streamed songs.
6. Marwan Pablo is one of the artists behind ‘Ghaba’ (Jungle), the most streamed song of 2021 and in the Egyptian rap scene, he is taking the youth by storm.
7. Mohamed Ramadan, Egypt’s star actor, began rapping two years ago and signed a contract with Rotana label in 2019. His songs released in 2021 – ‘Thabet’, ‘Versace Baby‘, ‘Alla Allah‘ – have reached 30 million views on YouTube. Read More…
