Artists
who's who and who's doing what?HAKIM (The Lion of Egypt)
- country:Egypt
- style(s):Oriental
- label:EMI Arabia
- artist submitted by:
You can't get a taxi in Cairo without hearing his joyful songs rattling out of the cassette player. Hakim between belief and business flair has sold more than 8 million records, recorded music with James Brown and Stevie Wonder, and was one of a select group of artists (including Joan Baez, Mick Fleetwood, Gloria Gaynor and Country Joe McDonald) invited to perform at the World Peace Music Awards in the US.
In the descent to the intolerance hell induced by fundamentalists and 'ignorantists', and the rush to branding Islam for what it does not stand for , Hakim is a distinctive non- cliché type, a cult exponent and a superb conveyor of identities in harmony rather than in feud. He incarnates the spontaneous force of life with an universal blossom , drawing upon the great power of music to win the largess of the people in his homeland or criss-crossing the planet able to perform with the beast fire of a world class singer and the sub-terranea of a folk mine-digger.
The Egyptian singer known as Hakim (he uses just one name) is one of the Arab world's most popular performers. His music -- danceable pop that originated in the streets of Cairo -- is called sha'bi. Like Algerian rai music, which also stems from a restive urban culture, sha'bi offers listeners a chance to vent their feelings about love, romance, money, dreams-- anything that's worth longing for, laughing and crying about.
Though Hakim's favorite subject seems to be love, he also sings a lot about cultural understanding, as on his last album, "El Yomen Dol," which features a duet with Brown about the need for people to connect and leave their problems behind them. The album also features a song that says Islam is a religion of peace and asks listeners to respond in kind. It's a cliche to say this in a post-Sept. 11 world, but Hakim wants to bring the world and Arabs closer together. He wants audiences to revel in lively music that's obviously of Arab origin but also reflects an increasingly global culture. "I want to bring the two cultures to bond even more," says Hakim in a phone interview from Cairo, before flying to Europe for his latest whirling tour, to promote his new album Kolo Yarros ( Everyone's dancing)
Arab artists have established an audience in the West, including the Rai singers Khaled (who is based in Paris), the soulful voice of Iraq Ilham Madfai and Cheb Mami (who recorded the hit "Desert Rose" with Sting). Like these atypical figures Hakim has also an infectious stage presence. He caters to his audience by bounding around and yelling encouragement to them.
"He's extremely charismatic, and when he starts performing, he's absolutely delightful -- he's completely on," says Scott Marcus, a professor of ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara who wrote an extensive chapter on Hakim in his recent book, "Music in the Middle East."
Hakim, who sings in Arabic, is a restless papillion hovering to gain universal following. This was illustrated In Al youmen Dol , an album produced by Narada Michael Walden, who worked with Stevie Wonder before and encouraged him to play on the song "Ya lahwi." the song, takes its title from an expression that means "Wow!"
"I couldn't believe it," says Hakim, recalling when Walden told him that Wonder wanted to record the song "Ya lahwi" with him. Hakim's first record deal came in 1992, though he performed for for 10years before that in settings that ranged from street corners to small clubs.
Sha'bi music sprang up in Egypt in the late 1970s, at a time when the orchestral traditions of Oum Kalthoum had been dominant. Because it's music of the street, sha'bi is looked down upon by some elements of Egyptian society. On his recent albums , Hakim did a song called "El salaam aleikum," which refers to the Arabic greeting "peace be upon you" that Muslims give upon meeting another person. Members of the Egyptian Senate said that the song was not reverential enough to the saying, but "El salaam aleikum" became a huge hit in the Arab world.
"There were some people who misunderstood the song and wanted to twist the meaning of the song," Hakim explains in a franchised tone of setting the record straight . 'Salaam aleikum' is a greeting, and I wanted to remind people of the meaning behind the greeting. It doesn't just mean 'hello' -- it's much more important; it's about giving peace and purifying souls..'
When Brown first heard the song, he was gob smacked and wanted to rerecord it with Hakim for "El Yomen Dol." But Hakim believed the song was already too popular to re-record, so he and Brown settled on "Lela," which means "night" in Arabic.
Hakim lives near the main square in Cairo where he used to perform. He still identifies with those buzzing streets, and its extravagant Kheima-Oriental huge Marquees wedding parties.
He has developed a new nickname: sha'bi chic, as he took the genre to the Beverlly hills answer to Egyptian upper Class post codes. Hakim feels proud that his deeply rooted grooves have affiliated the nation and as he put it: ' Shabi has become like the feel good factor that has no off limits, a sort of privilege for everyone…
"He's a hipper version or a modern version of sha'bi,". "The people who started sha'bi really did have a kind of angry street feel to their music. His new album Kolo Yorros, everyone's dancing is out on EMI Arabia and on stage Hakim lives up to the promise of making standing arenas an outburst of keeping the faith in the fantastic miracle of diversity through music.
On tour in 2005:
November:
12th - Milan (I) - Palasesto
14th - London (UK) - Shepherds Bush Empire
17th - Oslo (N) - Cosmopolite
19th - Stockholm (S) - Sodra Teatern
NOW BOOKING SUMMER TOUR FOR 2006!
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