CAIRO – 22 July 2018: Forbes’ "Arab Stars on the Global Stage" list included this year five Egyptians in different fields.
The Egyptian celebrities in Forbes list are the famed football player Mohamed Salah, the iconic singer Amr Diab, the popular singer Tamer Hosny, the director Abu Bakr Shawky and the famed actor Amr Waked. In the singers’ category, Hosny claimed the second rank after French Montana while Diab claimed the ninth rank. Shawky grabbed the third rank in the directors category after Nadine Labaki and Zaid Doueiri, while Waked was ranked the second after the Algerian actress Sofia Boutella in the actors section. Mohamed Salah was the only sportsman in the list.
1- Tamer Hosny
Tamer Hosny
Hosny is a singer, songwriter, composer and actor. He began his musical career in 2002 when he released his first album. His romantic music has made him "the Star of the Generation", a name given to him by his fans.
Hosny won many awards, such as Best Selling Album in 2002 from the Nile Variety channel, Best Arab Artist at Murex D’or in 2014 and 2016, and Best Arab Artist at the Middle East Music Awards in 2015. He is also the first Arab artist to receive more than 100 million views on Anghami.
Hosny’s latest movie, “Tesbah Ala Kheir” (Good Night), is an Egyptian romance movie, starring Lebanese actress Nour, Tunisian actress Dorra and Egyptian actress Mai Omar. It was directed and written by Mohamed Sami and produced by Walid Mansour and Talent Media Production.
“Tesbah Ala Kheir” is a movie about a millionaire named Hossam el-Khedawy, portrayed by Hosny, who is gripped with depression due to his wife’s infertility. A software professional, portrayed by Omar, who invented a dream machine, contacts him to offer him a deal. Even though the deal seems simple at first, the situation quickly becomes more complex.
Hosny recently performed a series of concerts in the Middle East, including a concert in Jordan at Arena Theatre and another one in Abu Dhabi.
He is currently shooting his new movie “El Badla” (The Suit). He plays the role of a police officer who finds himself involved in a number of critical situations due to the nature of his job.
“El Badla” stars Amina Khalil, Maged el-Masry, Dalal Abdel Aziz, Hassan Hosny and Mai Kassab, among others. The movie is written by Ayman Bahagat Kamar and directed by Mando el-Adl.
Hosny was the first Arab pop singer to perform a concert in Jeddah city in Saudi Arabia, on March 30. The concert witnessed the attendance of thousands of Saudis, about 90 percent of which were women. Hosny performed on a massive stage, made especially where all audience seats were either red, white or black; the three colors of Egypt’s flag.
The concert was organized under the auspices of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, which stated that Hosny was chosen to perform such a huge concert because of his popularity among all Saudis.
Hosny headed to Los Angeles and had his handprint and footprint permanently engraved on the Forecourt of the Stars at Hollywood's iconic Chinese Theatre in August 2017.
2- Amr Diab
Diab, born in 1961 in Port Said, has risen to fame over the past two decades in the Arab world. He continues to break sale records, according to a BBC report and his official Facebook page.
His most famous album, “Nour el-Ain” (Our Eyes Beam), brought him international recognition and earned him the title of “The Father of Mediterranean Music” for his style of blending Egyptian and western rhythms.
The mega star, who founded the record company Mediterranean Music, had his songs translated into seven different languages.
Diab received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Big Apple Music Awards in 2009. At the 2014 World Music Awards, Diab was also awarded Best Egyptian Artist, Best Male Arab Artist and World's Best Arab Male Artist Voted Online.
Diab’s first album, “Ya Tareeq” (The Path), was released in 1983. His most recent album, “Meaddy El-Nas” (Surpassing People), was released in July 2017, following a major viral promotion campaign across Cairo sponsored by Egypt Linx.
3- Amr Waked
Amr Waked
Amr Waked is an Egyptian film, television and stage actor. He is one of the most successful Egyptian actors among the current generation. Waked was born in Cairo in 1972.
He graduated from the American University in Cairo, where he studied both economics and theater. He started his acting career by joining the Temple Theatre company in 1994. In 1998 he performed in his first movie "Gannet El Shayateen" (The Devils’ Heaven).
In 2003 he made his international debut in “Syriana” and managed to grab attention with his professional performance.
In 2005, Waked co-founded Zad Communication & Production LLC. and started his career as a producer. Zad’s first feature film "Winter Of Discontent" opened the 69th Venice Film Festival in 2012.
Waked is known for his role as Pierre Del Rio in the blockbuster film “Lucy”, alongside Scarlett Johansson, and for roles in the Oscar-nominated films “Syriana”, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”, and “House of Saddam”.
4 - Abu Bakr Shawky
Abou Bakr Shawky
Shawky is a rising talented Egyptian-Austrian director whose first feature “Youmeddine” (Day of Judgment) screened at Cannes International Film Festival. Shawky is the first Egyptian to be invited to the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival.
“Yomeddine” was awarded the Francois Chalais Prize at the Cannes International Film festival. “Yomeddine” was also competing for the Cannes Festival’s most prestigious award, the Palm d'Or award. “Yomeddine” was nominated for the Golden Camera award, which is granted each year to the best first-time director at the Cannes festival.
The tragic comedy “Yomeddine” revolves around a leprosy patient who escapes from the hospital along with one of his friends in order to search for his family. The 71st Cannes Film Festival held a press conference with the Egyptian filmmakers of “Yomeddine” after its screening at the festival on May 9. The screening was attended by many international actors, including Julianne Moore, Louise Bourgoin and Kiko Mizuhara. All the attendees praised the movie’s construction and drama line, as well as the directing technique adopted by Shawky in his debut feature.
The first Egyptian movie participating in Cannes Film Festival’s main competition managed to grab the attention of all those who watched it. International media platforms were keen to put the spotlight on “Yomeddine”, writing extremely positive reviews about the movie, which presents an innovative mixture of tragedy, comedy, and condensed shots of emotions and sentiments.
“A man who has recovered from leprosy goes in search of the father who abandoned him in a sentimental drama that infantilizes its lead character,” wrote Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.
“Recalling about a thousand other titles, with the Lynch films ‘The Elephant Man’ and ‘The Straight Story’ definitely near the top of the list, this is a picaresque road movie about two mismatched characters, with rookie director A.B. Shawky offering a motley and not entirely smooth cocktail of drama and melodrama, a dash of social critique and insight, some chuckles and a few tugs at the heartstrings, mainly by virtue of its near-virtuoso score,” wrote Boyd van Hoeij in The Hollywood Reporter.
“A lovingly made, character-driven road movie that occasionally dips into sentimentality, yet has moments that honestly play on the heartstrings,” wrote Jay Weissberg in Variety.
Before “Yomeddine”, Shawky directed some short films such as “The Colony”, “Things I Heard On Wednesdays” and “Martyr Friday” among others. In 2014 he co-established his production company “Desert Highway Pictures” in 2014 with his wife, Egyptian producer Dina Emam.
It is worth mentioning that the iconic Lebanese singer Fayrouz was named by Forbes as “All Time Favorite Artist”.
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