Salah el-Din Citadel Festival’s closing with Saleh’s signature

CAIRO – 17 August 2018: The closing ceremony of the 27th edition of Salah el-Din International Citadel Festival for Music and Singing will take place on Friday with a concert by veteran singer Medhat Saleh.

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

Organized by Cairo Opera House, the festival presented 37 various concerts by Egyptian and Arab countries in this year’s edition.



This year the festival’s line-up included 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 hosted 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 was 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.
Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem launched the Salah el-Din International Citadel Festival for Music and Singing in its 27th round on Aug. 2 at the Mahka Theatre at the citadel.

After Abdel Dayem delivered her speech during the inauguration ceremony she honored 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 honorees 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.

Medhat 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.