It was an evening of nostalgia. The band formed in 1976 made a comeback at the Sawy Culture Center on Sunday at a concert entitled “El-Masriyeen Rag’een (Masriyeen Return). While I went expecting some ironic numbers a la Ahmed Fouad Negm and Sheikh Imam, the band leader and composer Hani Shenouda was all praises for the country: “We are Egyptians (masriyeen), playing for Egyptians, and there is no greater honor than that.Who else can say they were born with three pyramids behind them?
Shenouda need not have harked that far back to find pride in Egyptians. His own band El-Masriyeen shot to fame in the 80s, and is the author of many popular numbers sung by Iman Younes including “Banat Kiteer Min Sinni (Many Girls My Age) and “Mashya El-Sanniora (The Pretty Girl Strolls Along). To many in the audience, these songs formed the soundtrack of their youth or childhood. Many sashayed in tune, some even sang along.
With numerous audience members introduced, about a third may easily have been relatives and collaborators in the band’s music. The audience started clapping from the get go to the local beats of drummer Mustafa Kerdany. As each band member was introduced, they joined in with their instrument. Hamid Sabry on the bass, Mohamed Adel on the electric guitar, the tabla playing Hany Bedeir and finally the band’s original star vocalist Iman Younes.
The comeback was Younes’ idea, who admitted she was strongly backed by her son. It was Younes, too, who trained the three young and promising singers present with her – Afaf Atef, Fathy Alfy and Ayman Sirdar. The evening began with an aptly chosen “Ebda’ Gedeed (Start Anew).
“El Farq Bene we Ben Waldi (The Difference between My Father and I) was a well-delivered number by baritone Fathy Alfy, an endearing song about a son growing to be like his father. What Alfy has in terms of voice as clearly confirmed by his number “We Howwa Eih? (And What Is It?), Ayman Sirdar makes up for with charm. Dancing and cocking his head to the tune, “Bahabbik La’a (Love You, No), Sirdar won over loud cheers from the audience for his flamboyance.
The set-list comprised numbers by Morsi Sayyid and Salah Jahin, and as is always said of these writers, were timeless numbers. Fathy Alfy told Daily News Egypt that what distinguished the band’s music was its focus on the everyday concerns Egyptians had about life, love, girl talk, marriage, and so on. That’s why the songs aged well through the years.
Classics such as “Ya Mama Sittu were followed by calls for an encore which was immediately given. The evening had around 20 numbers, of which one was also written by actress Souad Younes, Iman Younes sister.
Amr Hassan from rock outfit Andromeda joined the band on the piano for a number entitled “El-Hob da Ehsaas (Love is a Feeling).
Instead of a break, Shenouda took the opportunity to explain to the audience their transition from a monophone to polyphone, where the voices of singers acted as different strings of a guitar, each with a specific tuning, that nevertheless produced a combined full sound as they played together.
Fan favorite “El-Gawaz Mesh Raha (Marriage is not Rest) raised the merriment tempo to the maximum with its light-hearted warning for women that marriage is not the answer, while “Ehlamoo (Dream) invited the audience to keep on dreaming; songs certainly sung about the concerns and to the ears of the masses.
The evening ended with “The Pretty Girl Strolls Along, a much-requested popular number famous for its animated video.
The performance earned El-Masriyeen a standing ovation, but it may as well have been an ovation to the re-enactment of a time passed, of simpler and purer times, or perhaps to three monuments that still stand in the backdrop of the Egyptian musical horizon.
Masriyeen will perform at the Cairo Opera House on Jan. 8, Open Air Theater, 8 pm.
