What was up on the artistic, cultural scene last week?

If you have missed what has been happening in the world of art, literature and culture during the past week, then read on for our takeaway summary.

The week began with the two incidents that took place at the annual Joy awards that is held in Saudi Arabia; the first involved the Egyptian singer, Angham, who upon receiving her award for best singer from the two Syrian actors; Samer El Masry and Dima Dinkolt – the stars of the popular TV Series ‘ Stileto – the singer completely dismissed the two stars, with no words of thanks or even acknowledgement, instead as she stood on stage her first words were ‘I thought Abu Nasr (Turki El Shekh) would be the one giving me the award’. Her words proved to be a very awkward encounter and some have seen it as an insult to the two Syrian stars, in fact the actress Sima Dinkolt soon took to twitter to express her disappointment at Angham’s lack of stage decorum and manners.

 

The second incident took place when the Syrian singer Assala also went up to receive her award for best song but appeared to be in a less than a happy mood, completely ignoring the Egyptian couples; actor Mohamed Farag and his actress wife Passant Shawky. Some have interpreted this as Asala’sannoyance at Angham, especially after she tweeted an ambiguous tweet that she soon deleted.

 

This week saw the opening of the 54th Cairo International Book Fair, which will take place at the International Exhibition Centre of Egypt, from the 26th of January to 6th of February. “The late Egyptian poet Salah Jaheen will be the personality of the year, while the Egyptian writer Kamel Kilani, who has pioneered children’s literature across the Arab world, will be the personality of the year at the children’s exhibition,” the Egyptian Ministry of Culture said in a statement. The 54th edition of the event focuses on Jaheen'spoetry, biography and his comics, which will be involved in the event's program, according to Minister Nevine Al-Kilani.

 

This week saw the last episode of ‘Mawdoua’ Aa’aili’ (A Family Affair) starring Majed AlKedwani and Rana Raeis, Noor and a host of other stars, the series has won the hearts of many people with so many posts on social media praising the comedy series.

A song entitled ‘Bint Abouyea’ (My Father’s Daughter) was performed in the episode before last of ‘Mawdoua’ Aa’aili’ (A Family Affair) has set social media alight as its very rare for fathers to have a song sang about them but also the voice of the aspiring singer and actress Hana Yousry – the daughter of the late iconic actor Ibrahim Yousry – touched the souls of many people, with so many posting videos of their father to the background of the song, even famous people like Rana Raeis, Laila Zaher and Salah Abdullah’s daughter.

 

The week also saw the start of the much acclaimed TV Drama, ‘Azmet Montasaf El omer’ (Mid Life Crisis), so far four episodes have been aired but already its been the talk of social media and its star Karim Fahmi did a live video on Instagram to mark the airing of the series.

 

The actor Sherif Ramzy gave an update on his younger brother, Salah, who has been in a coma for over 6 months, in a post to mark his sibling’s birthday, Sherif stated that his brother is still in a coma.

The Mahraganat singer Hassan Shakoush announced his engagement yesterday with videos circulating on social media of the engagement party with him and Omar Kamal singing together ‘Bint el Jeran’.

 

In an apparent response to Shakira's indirect attack on him, Gerard Pique posted a photo on Instagram of him and what appears to be the woman he had chosen over Shakira. The previous Week Shakira had used a new song to attack the father of her children, with the lyric of her song directly accuses him of swapping Rolex for cassio watch.