The Ones Who Played Their Cards Right ... Salalem

By: Ahmed Mansour

There was little competition in 2005 when Salalem broke into the music business. But even back then everyone knew this was no one-hit wonder and that Salalem was here to stay. What started as an amateur band jamming on the Ain Shams University stairs (hence the name “salalem”) just to kill time and have some “fun” soon turned into the “Happy Van” for listeners who liked the alternative sound and could relate to the music the six boys were making. With Sonic Ltd., Salalem released their first album Kelma Abeeha in 2011, and they’ve been performing in the big-name venues around the country ever since. Lead vocalist Mohammed “Jimi” Jamal brands Salalem as a “motivational indie pop band with a goal” to give, as much as they can, positive boosts to people and make them happy. They do that, Jimi says, with upbeat music and lyrics, and by avoiding sensitive topics that would ruin peoples mood. “When people leave our concerts we try as much as we can to make them the happiest people on earth, and until this moment we never failed at such a task.” Salalem has recorded two political songs but that was it, because they quickly realized it is not what the band is about. “Our message to the people has always been motivational messages. Politics is all about death and deceiving, which is totally against the moral of our band, so we refrained from making it our thing. The two political songs we played were just for the people to understand the political views of the band, since that everything in Egypt now a day has to do with politics.”