Abdel Dayem honors Shaker, Saleh at Salah el-Din International Citadel Festival

CAIRO – 3 August 2018: Minister of Culture Ines Abdel Dayem launched the Salah el-Din International Citadel Festival for Music and Singing in its 27th round on Thursday at the Mahka Theatre at the citadel.

After Abdel Dayem delivered her speech during the inauguration ceremony she honoured the artistic figures who greatly impacted the festival’s success: veteran singers Hany Shaker and Medhat Saleh, as well as violin player Alaa Khalil, director Sayed Amin Abou Elhoda, critic Kariman Herk, Mohamed Hamdy and piano maintenance expert Hatem Mansour.

Abdel Dayem gave the honourees the honor shields and certificates of appreciation. The honoring was followed by Chinese shows and folklore songs presented by Chinese youth and children as well as a concert by the singer Shaker.


Hany Shaker performing in the festival - Facebook.


Chairman of Cairo Opera House Magdy Saber remarked that this year the festival has been granted with an international badge for the first time.

Organized by Cairo Opera House, the festival will run until Aug. 17, presenting 37 various concerts by Egyptian and Arab countries in this year’s edition.



This year the festival’s line-up includes Fouad and Mounib band, Tunisian singer Ghali Banali, Egyptian marimba player Nesma Abdel Aziz, Egyptian singers Sheikh Yasin Al-Tuhami, Ali El Haggar, Iman Al-Bahr Darwish and Ihab Tawfik, Monte Cairo band, El Nour W El Amal Orchestra and Syrian singer Majed Al Qasim.

No’man Ashour’s cultural castle in Mit Ghamr district is going to host a ceremony to grant the festival the “Salah Hilal” Award for best playwright and “Abu el-Anain Sharaf el-Din” Award for best poet.

The cultural ceremony will be supervised by critic Yusri el-Arab. It is worth noting that No’man Ashour was an Egyptian poet and playwright. The late poet died in April 1987.

Shaker was born in Cairo in 1952. He started his musical career at a very young age in Abdel Halim Hafez choral with the song “Sora” (Photo). Later, Shaker performed the role of young Sayed Darwish in the movie “Sayed Darwish”.

He studied music in the Cairo Conservatoire. In 1972, while he was a student in the second year, he released his first breakthrough hit “Heloua Ya Donia” (It’s a Wonderful Life). Shaker had much support from the musical legends at that time, such as Umm Kulthum, Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez, as they believed in his talent.

Shaker's musical repertoire includes more than 461 songs such as “Ghalta” (A Mistake), “El Helm El Gameel” (The Beautiful Dream), and “Tekhsary” (You Will Lose) among others. Shaker is the current head of the Egyptian Musicians Syndicate.

Saleh was born in Cairo in 1960 in Shobra district. He started his musical career directly after he graduated from Cairo University. He released his first song, entitled “Akeed” (Sure) in the 1980s.

He performed his song named “Ya Greed el Nakhl el Aly” (O High Palm Leaves) in front of ex Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak in mid 1980s, where the song achieved a booming success, placing Saleh among the top singers at that time.

Throughout his career that extended for more than 30 years, Saleh was famous for performing the songs of the most successful movies such as "Habiby Ya Ashek" in “Short w Fanla w Cap” (Shorts, a T-shirt and a Hat) movie, "El Nour Makano Fel Keloob" (Light Belongs in the Hearts) from “Amir el Zalam” (The Prince of Darkness) movie, “La Hatakhod Eih” (What Will You Gain?) from the movie "Mafia", among others.