Amr Diab

Amr Diab
Background information
Birth name Amr Abdel Basset Abdel Azeez Diab
Born 11 October 1961
Port Said, Egypt
Genres Arabic Pop, dance, folk dance, Latin pop[1]
Occupation(s) Singer, composer
Instruments Vocal, Piano
Years active 1983–present
Website www.amrdiab.net

Amr Abd El-Basset Abd El-Azeez Diab (Arabic: عمرو عبدالباسط عبد العزيز دياب‎  pronounced [ˈʕɑm.ɾe ʕæbdelˈbɑːsetˤ ʕæbdelʕæˈziːz deˈjæːb];[pronunciation 1] born 11 October 1961)[2] is an Egyptian popstar and composer of Pop music. He has been awarded the World Music Award for Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist four times: 1996 for album Nour El Ain, 2001 for album Akter Wahed, 2007 for album El Lillady and 2013 for El Leila album. He also won (Best Egyptian Artist, Best Male Arab Artist and World's Best Arab Male Artist Voted Online) at the World Music Awards 2014.[3] Diab is the only Middle Eastern artist to have received 7 World Music Awards. He also won The African Music Awards 2009 as Artist Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Video Of The Year And Best Male Act, and won The 2010 African Music Awards as best male act and best artist of North Africa. He is the only African artist to have received 6 African Music Awards in his career. He has had five platinum records:Matkhafiesh (1990), Habiby (1991), Ayyamna (1992),Ya Omrena (1993) and Nour El Ai (1997, triple platinum). Diab won Big Apple Music Awards 2009 as Lifetime Achievements Awards and Best Singer of The Year and also won The Global Icon Award, Most Popular Artist and Best Arabic Male Artist in 2014.

Amr Diab with His 7 World Music Awards

Early life

Diab was born on 11 October 1961 in Port Said, Egypt. His father was the chairman of Marine Construction & Shipbuilding. At age six Diab sang at the July 23 Festival in Port Said, and was rewarded with a guitar from the governor.

Diab earned a bachelor degree in Arabic Music and graduated from the Cairo Academy of Arts in 1986.

Career

Diab entered the musical arena and introduced his first album Ya Tareea in 1983. He followed with several additional albums: Ghanny Men Albak (1984), Hala Hala (1986), Khalseen (1987), Mayyal (1988), Shawa'na (1989) and Matkhafesh (1990).

Diab was chosen to perform and represent Egypt at the 5th Tournament of African Sports in 1990 where he sang in mostly in Arabic, but also in English and French. During the same year he had a role in the film El Afareet with actress Madiha Kamel. Then came albums Habibi (1991), Ayyamna (1992) and Ya Omrena (1993). In 1992 and 1994, Amr played two more film roles in Ice Cream Fe Glim and Dehk Wele'b Wegad Wehob.

Diab released the album Weylomony in 1994, and officially established himself as a super star of the Arab world with the launch of Rag'een in 1995 and the popular Nour El Ein album in 1996 which achieved many music awards. He then followed with Awedony in 1998.

Diab made a breakthrough with his Amarain album in 1999. He performed duets on this album with Algerian-French based Cheb Khaled (on the song "Alby") and with Greek Angela Dimitriou (on the song "Bahebbak Aktar").

In 2003, Diab released Tamally Ma'ak, "Aktar Wahed" and Allem Alby, merging the Arabian oriental theme of music and the western style of musical beats, arrangements and finalisation.

Diab has achieved the World Music Awards twice as best selling Middle Eastern singer, with his albums Nour El Ain in 1998 and Aktar Wahed in 2002. He also received a Platinum Award for the sales of Nour El Ain.

2004 witnessed the release of the Leily Nehary album. Kammel Kalamak was released in December 2005 and contains 10 tracks representing a year and half of continuous studio efforts. Amr won his third World Music Award on his Ellila de album, which was released in July 2007.

A twelve part documentary entitled El-Helm was released on TV in 2008, which reviewed Diab's success through his long career, in addition to his international recognition and fame.

2009 witnessed a new milestone in Amr's career, with the release of Wayah. The album won four African Music Awards in London and two Big Apple Music Awards in New York. Diab released the single "Aslaha Betefrea" in 2010; It included one song with three different arrangements. It achieved massive success and was on the top charts for the year. He also performed his annual concert in Golf Porto Marina, where more than 120,000 attended.

In October 2010, Amr Diab won two African Music Awards (Best Male Act of Africa and Best North African Artist) during the African Music Award Festival in London.

September 2011 saw the release of his album Banadeek Taala, produced by Rotana. Amr Diab composed 9 of the 12 songs on this album.

In February 2011, Amr Diab released his hit single "Masr Allet" (Egypt spoke). The song was released during the 2011 revolution in Egypt and was dedicated to the martyrs of the revolution. In 2012, Diab hosted the first Google Hangout in the Middle East during his performance in Dubai. Ten winners had the chance to speak live with Diab.

Diab launched his "Amr Diab Academy" in 2012 on YouTube. The program searched for singers from all over the world. Thousands of applicants were submitted, and at the last stage two winners were announced: Mohanad Zoheir and Wafae Chikki joined Diab, signing a duet in his Egypt concert in 2012.

In 2013, Diab had his Golden Tour, celebrating 30 years of success. The tour began in Australia and continued in Qatar, Dubai, Egypt, Greece, and Romania. In August 2013, Diab released the El Leila album which was the number one selling album in the world category in iTunes and Rotana. Diab released his music video "El Leila", which was shot in Greece, and the music video made more than 10 million views shortly after its release.

On New Year's Eve 2013, Diab performed at the Romexpo Stadium in Bucharest, Romania. The concert had thousands of Romanian fans and other fans flew to attend the concert.

On May 27, 2014 Amr Diab won Best Egyptian Artist, Best Male Arab Artist, Best-selling Arab Album (El Leila), and World's Best Arab Male Artist Voted Online at the World Music Awards in Monaco.

Musical Style

Diab is known as the father of Mediterranean Music.[4][5][6] He has created his own style which is often termed "Mediterranean Music" or "Mediterranean Sound", a blend of Western and Egyptian rhythms.[7] David Cooper and Kevin Dawe refer to his music as "the new breed of Mediterranean music".[8] According to author Michael Frishkopf, Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially with his international hit, "Nour El Ain".[7]

Amr Diab's "Pan-Mediterranean" style Arabic music fuses touches of flamenco and raï with western pop and traditional Arabic rhythms. By 1992, he became the first Arabic artist to start making high-tech music videos.[7]

Personal life

Diab is married to Zeina Ashour and they have three daughters and a son.

Albums

Tamally Ma'ak

Main article: Tamally Ma'ak

Wayah (2009)

The world music award of for the best-selling album in the Middle East 2009, Wayah (With Her) was released for sale on the internet on 27 June; however, the album was leaked online and was downloaded illegally amid complaints of slow download speed on the official site. Diab's fans initiated a massive boycott of the sites with the illegal copies.[9]

On 18 October 2009 Amr Diab won four 2009 African Music Awards in the following categories: best artist, best album, best vocalist and best song for "Wayah"; Amr Diab had been nominated by the Big Apple Music Awards.[10]

Success Of El Leila (2013)

Chart (2013) Peak
position
Virgin Egypt Chart 1
Virgin Lebanon Chart 1
Virgin UAE Chart 1
Virgin Saudi Arabia Chart 1
Virgin Jordan Chart 1
Virgin Qatar Chart 1
Virgin Oman Chart 1
Virgin Bahrain Chart 1
iTunes Chart (2013) Peak
position
Egypt Chart 1
UAE Chart 1
Lebanon Chart 1
Saudi Arabia Chart 1
Jordan Chart 1
Qatar Chart 1
Oman Chart 1
Bahrain Chart 1

Music videos

Diab is one of the first singers to popularise music videos in the Arab world and the first Egyptian singer to appear in music videos.[7]

His music video for "N'eoul Eih" was released on 14 August 2007 on Rotana TV.

Film career

Diab's fame in the music industry has led him to experiment with other forms of media, such as film. Amr played himself in his first film, El Afareet, which was released in 1989. It also starred Madiha Kamel. His second film Ice Cream in Gleam (Ays Krim fi Glym), in which Diab starred in 1992, was chosen as one of the best five Egyptian musical films by the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. The film was featured in the UCLA Film and Television Archive's new program "Music on the Nile: Fifty Years of Egyptian Musical Films" at James Bridges Theater at UCLA on 6, 8 and 10 April 1999. David Chute of the Los Angeles Weekly termed it "observant" and "a big leap".[11] His third movie was released in 1993, and was named Deahk We La'ab (Laughter and Fun). The film premiered in the Egyptian Film Festival in 1993. Amr played alongside international Egyptian movie star Omar Sharif (Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago) and Yousra. Overall, Diab did not experience the same level of success in film that he had with his music career. Since 1993, Diab has focused on his singing career.

Egyptian Revolution

During the 2011 uprising, some protesters criticized Diab for staying silent, and for fleeing Egypt for London.[12] However, a few days after former President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, Amr Diab composed and sang a memorial song, "Masr A'let" (Egypt Said Its Word),[13] and released it in conjunction with a music video showing pictures of the martyrs who died in the uprising. He also initiated a charity campaign "Masry Begad" ("Real Egyptian"), a social national program aimed at serving and rebuilding Egyptian society. His online radio station Diab FM often presents talks and discussions about what the Diab FM team can offer to the community as well as applying it practically by being present in different sites across Egypt with a new humanitarian project each week.[14]

Amr Diab in movies

Amr Diab's songs have appeared in several films, including:

Discography

Official Albums

Unofficial Albums

Notes

  1. ↑ His common shortened name, Amr Diab, is pronounced in Egyptian Arabic as [ˈʕɑm.ɾedˈjæːb]

References

  1. ↑ Frishkopf, Michael (November 22, 2002), Plastino, Goffredo, ed., Mediterranean Mosaic: Popular Music and Global Sounds, Routledge, p. 170, ISBN 0415936551
  2. ↑ "Bio". IMDb.
  3. ↑ http://amrdiab.net/diab/awards/item/264-wma2014.html
  4. ↑ Lesswing, Bryan (October 2009). "Sounds of the Middle East, Minnesota provide options for listeners". The DePauw. Retrieved 20 December 2009.
  5. ↑ Crane, Kelly (April 2010). "Egyptian superstar Amr Diab is set to rock Dubai". Gulf News. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  6. ↑ Matt, Ross (January 2011). "Q&A: Amr Diab". Rolling Stone Middle East. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Frishkopf, Michael (2003). "Some Meanings of the Spanish Tinge in Contemporary Egyptian Music". In Plastino, Goffredo. Mediterranean mosaic: popular music and global sounds (PDF). Routledge. pp. 145–148. ISBN 978-0-415-93656-9. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  8. ↑ Cooper, David; Kevin Dawe (2005). The Mediterranean in music: Critical perspectives, common concerns, cultural differences. Scarecrow Press. p. 117. ISBN 0-8108-5407-4.
  9. ↑ "Amr Diab's album sweeping cassette market". Musicananet. 30 June 2009. Retrieved 2 July 2009. (Arabic)
  10. ↑ Khaled Taha (25 October 2009). "Amr Diab wins four African Music Awards" (in Arabic). ART. Archived from the original on 27 October 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2009.
  11. ↑ Chute, David; Irene G. Behnan (8 April 1999). "All Singing! All Belly-Dancing". Los Angeles Weekly. Archived from the original on 27 June 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  12. ↑ "Egyptian celebrities face protesters' wrath in post-Mubarak Egypt". Asharq al-awsat, 18 February 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  13. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsxyHbWY71s
  14. ↑ http://diabfm.com/masry-begad
  15. ↑ "Soundtracks for Yadon ilaheyya". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  16. ↑ "Soundtracks for The Dancer Upstairs". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  17. ↑ "Soundtracks for O Clone". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  18. ↑ "Amr Diab Filmography". Yahoo! Movies. Archived from the original on 20 May 2009. Retrieved 11 June 2009.
  19. ↑ "Malcolm in the Middle, Season 4, Episode 4 notes". CNET Network: TV.com. Retrieved 12 October 2009.

Further reading

External links

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