Citadel Festival concludes events with fascinating concert

CAIRO – 2 September 2019: Minister of CuIture Inas Abdel Dayem attended the closing concert of the 28th Edition of Salah El-Din Citadel Festival of Music and Singing organized by the Egyptian Opera House headed by Magdy Saber.

The Citadel Music Festival kicked off on August 18, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Cairo Opera House.

After 14 evenings, in which nearly 130,000 spectators enjoyed various shades of Egyptian and international arts,the final event presented a dancing show for Sohag Folk Arts Troupe, followed by a concert for iconic artist Omar khairat .

Abdel Dayem said that the Citadel Festival reflects the confidence of the Egyptian citizens in the artistic and cultural content aimed at improving public taste.

The minister added that she followed the daily concerts, which included various age and social layers of the society and clearly demonstrated the promoted awareness of the people and their ability to face extremism and destructive ideas, stressing that the audience was the real star of the festival.

It is worth mentioning that Sohag Folk Art troupe has started the ceremony with a number of artistic shows that presented some of the customs and traditions inherited from Upper Egypt.

Khairat was born in Alexandria and raised in a family of musicians. He began his career in 1959 as a pianist.He was a member of the Egyptian band Les Petits Chats, founded in 1967. They presented Italian, French and English songs. The band was immensely popular in the late 1960s and the early 1970s.

Khairat is influenced by different genres of music such as Arabic, European classical, Egyptian, African, Jazz, Pop, and Blues. He won the Best Musician Award in 1989 from the Egyptian Society for Cinema.

FILE - Inas Abdel Dayem and Magdy Saber in the closing ceremony of the Citadel Festival
Khairat is a composer that can blend the style of international symphonies with Egyptian music masterfully. He has composed many successful music pieces such as “Dameer Abla Hikmat” (Abla Hikmat’s Conscience), “Wagh el-Kamar” (The Moon's Face) and “Leilet el-Kabd ala Fatma” (The Night Fatma was Arrested), among others.

Khairat performed an unforgettable concert at Al-Ula Saudi city, where he dazzled the attendees with his music as part of Winter Tantoura Festival on January 11.

On December 1, 2017,Khairat performed his first concert in London at the Concert hall in St. John’s Smith Square. This concert aimed to collect donations for charity and raise public awareness about street kids and orphans in Egypt.

The Egyptian virtuoso musician also performed a dazzling concert at the Mariinsky Theatre in the cultural city of Saint Petersburg on June 18, 2018 in celebration of the Egyptian national football team’s participation in the World Cup after 28 years of absence.

The concert was also organized to boost tourism and spread awareness about the Egyptian culture.

Omar Khairat composed the soundtrack of “El-Mamar” (The Passage), which illustrates one of the most heroic battles ever fought by Egyptian soldiers. The movie was released in Eid el-Fitr.