Musicians Syndicate cancels Abdel Wahab’s singing ban decision

CAIRO – 4 June 2019: The Musicians Syndicate cancelled its previous decision pertaining to banning famed Egyptian singer Sherine Abdel Wahab from singing.

Veteran singer and head of Musician Syndicate Hany Shaker stated that the syndicate made this decision after Abdel Wahab submitted a written apology to the Egyptian people and the syndicate.

Abdel Wahab has officially been banned from singing for insulting her home country in a concert, the Musicians Syndicate announced in a statement released on March 21.

Egyptian lawyer Samir Sabry submitted a complaint against the Egyptian super star to the Egyptian general prosecutor accusing her of insulting Egypt during her recent concert in Bahrain.
"I can talk here with complete freedom, in Egypt anyone who talks freely is going to be jailed,"’ said Abdel Wahab during the concert.

Earlier this year, Sabry submitted a complaint against Abdel Wahab to the Egyptian general prosecutor accusing her of insulting Egypt during her New Year's Eve concert. Abdel Wahab said “Egypt doesn’t deserve me” which is considered an inappropriate joke.

Abdel Wahab is not only famous for her melodious voice; she is famous as well for her controversial actions that put her in embarrassing situations in front of her fans.

Sherine’s dispute with Sherif Mounir

Abdel-Wahab was accused on Saturday, August 16, 2014, of damaging the apartment of her neighbour, actor Sherif Mounir.

Abdel-Wahab's air conditioner leaked water onto the balcony of Mounir, who lives in a lower apartment in the same building located in Mokattam district. A block of marble fell from Abdel-Wahab's balcony and almost injured Mounir’s daughter.

Mounir spoke to Abdel-Wahab to complain about the incident and instead of calming him down she shouted at him. Mounir has charged Abdel-Wahab of defamation, claiming that she insulted him and tried to attack him, the matter that drove Mounir to file a case against Abdel-Wahab.

Abdel-Wahab was sentenced by a Cairo court to six months in jail and was fined LE 500. Later she apologized to Mounir who withdrew the case.

Her dispute with Amr Diab

Abdel-Wahab was invited to Amr Youssef and Kinda Alloush’s wedding party where she got on stage and indirectly insulted Amr Diab’s old age. Sherine was filmed on the stage without her knowledge while telling jokes about herself and the Syrian singer Assala.

She started to talk about the Egyptian music industry saying: "We don’t have singers, except only those two (she pointed at Tamer Hosny and Mohamed Hamaki), and I want to say that, his time has passed. The other one is now too old,” right before Youssef takes away the microphone to stop her from continuing. It was clear that she meant to talk about Diab.

Diab’s fans got offended by Abdel-Wahab’s comments and started a hashtag spreading that Sherine was drunk #شرين_سكرانه (#Sherine_is_drunk) along with the video and pictures of Amr Diab’s many music awards.

Sherine posted an official apology after the video went viral, to all those she has wronged at the wedding party, saying that she was only joking and did not filter her “joking” appropriately as she was in a private event.

Insulting her home country

Al-Mokattam’s Court of Appeals scheduled Abdel Wahab’s appeal session for April 10 in the case where she was charged with insulting Egypt for a “bad joke” she made during a concert in Lebanon.

The Egyptian Court had sentenced Abdel Wahab to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of LE 5,000.

The singer made an ill-humoured joke when one of the fans asked her to perform “Mashrebtesh Min Nilha” (Have You Drank from Egypt’s Nile?), to which Abdel Wahab replied that she would contract Schistosomiasis if she drank the water, a phrase seen as inappropriate by many social media users.

“We will continue drinking the Nile’s water and will stop listening to Sherine’s songs,” was the hashtag that launched immediately in response to her joke. The hashtag topped trends in Egypt for the few hours that followed Abdel Wahab’s declaration.

The Health Ministry previously released a statement that contended the singer’s allegations. The statement stressed that Egypt has fought Schistosomiasis and reduced its prevalence to 0.2 percent.

The Egyptian Musicians Syndicate decided, after conducting the necessary investigations, to ban Abdel Wahab from singing in Egypt for two months. This period ended on January 14, 2018.

“There are some envious people who seek to harm Sherine and ruin the great accomplishments she achieved in the past few years. She will come to the syndicate to defend herself and clear her position,” Reda Ragab, the deputy head of the Musicians Syndicate recounted previously.

“We should turn this page and be all fully dedicated to support our country culturally and artistically at this current historic stage to achieve the aspirations of the great Egyptian people,” renowned Egyptian singer and syndicate Head Hani Shaker previously stated, commenting on the syndicate's decision to ban Abdel Wahab from singing.

Abdel Wahab, 37, is a popular Egyptian singer who was born in 1980. She started her career in 2000. Two years later, music producer Nassr Mahrous who strongly believed in Abdel Wahab paired her with Tamer Hosny on the same music album.

The album achieved booming success; Abdel Wahab and Hosny became mega stars.

Abdel Wahab released a lot of successful songs such as “Masha’aer’’ (Emotions), "Albi Leek" (My heart is for you), “Garh Tany” (Another wound), “Lazem Ayesh” (I have to survive), “Batmenak” (I am Reassuring you) among others.

She acted in one movie along with the Egyptian mega star Ahmed Helmy entitled “Mido Mashakel” (Mido always makes problems). Her soap opera “Tare’y” (My path), released in 2015, achieved great success.

Abdel Wahab is famous for her emotional, melodious voice that has a significant touch of intimacy. She is consistently hailed as one of the most talented and successful singers of her era, being dubbed as “The Queen of Emotions” for her popular romantic ballads.