Ahmed Adaweyah

Ahmed Adaweyah (Arabic: احمد عدوية‎) is an Egyptian singer of sha'abi music. He has starred in 27 Egyptian films. Adaweyah was born in a working class area near Maadi in the mid 1940s and started his career as a cafe waiter, while he also performed songs using the language of the streets of Cairo, full of working class slang and double entendres. His recordings outsold many others and were circulated via audiocassette in the streets. Among them, "Salamit Ummih Hassan" referred to Egypt (as Umm Hassan) and its defeat in 1967; "Zahma ya Dunia, Zahma" lamented the crowded and hectic conditions in Cairo, "Ya Bint Sultan" became a favorite song performed for dancers. Like many shaabi (meaning of the 'people', or working class) singers Adaweyah was capable of delivering a strong mawal (vocal improvisation).^[1] Despite the disapproval of the music establishment, and the exclusion of his songs from television or radio, they became wildly popular as they spread on audiocassettes. He advanced to singing in five-star hotels and the best nightclubs of the time. ^[2]

He was drugged and attacked by a jealous Kuwaiti husband in 1990.^[3] Officials claim that he was found comatose after an overdose of heroin administered by person(s) connected to the jealous husband.^[4] Other sources attribute the attack, in which he was supposedly surgically castrated to Saudis. In any case, Adawiyya recovered sufficiently to sing again, he is partially paralyzed, and has appeared on music programs. His latest song (2018) is Helw Wasl and the Ukrainian dancer Allah Kushnir appears in the music video. ^[5]

References