If
Egypt is the treasure chest of music
in the Arab-Muslim world, then Cairo
is its greatest jewel.
It was
in Egypt that the Nahda – Renaissance – was
born in the 19 th century, a great
movement towards the renaissance
of Arabic music that was supported
by the Court of Khedive Ismael, then
pitting its strength against the
ambitions of imperial Europe.
The ‘giants of the 20 th
century’, Egyptians such as
Oum Kalsoum, Mohamed Abd el Wahab,
Habdel Halim Hafezz and Farid El
Atrache still shine in the firmament
of the Arabic world and are forever
there in the hearts of music lovers
from Baghdad to Casablanca and from
Damascus to Beirut.
It is
in this inspiring vein of music
that Saïd Hafid can be
found. Saïd Hassan Hafed Idriss,
known as Saïd Hafid, was born
in 1951 in Ismaïlia , Egypt
. While learning the Qur’an
in the madrasa – the Qur’anic
school – Hafid was entranced
by the songs, as many singers of
the Arab world have been before him.
A graduate of the religious University
of Al Azhar in Cairo , he was a pupil
of the great composer Ahmed Abdelkader.
Hafid has appeared in religious programmes
on Egyptian national radio and TV
since 1973. It was in 1979 that he
premiered on national radio a song
entitled Hamdullilah (Glory
to God).
That same
year Hafid began his radio programmes
of recitations from the Qur’an
and presented religious songs in
the Sidna El Hussein and Sidna
Zineb mosques of Cairo .
His recordings with singers and
composers Mohamed Lahlou, Ya
Habibi Kan Zaman, and Iman Albahr
Daronish, Ya Rassoul Allah, Ya
Habib Allah, have brought him
great popularity amongst the Egyptian
general public and more widely across
the Arab world.
As Spanish
journalist Marino Rodriguez aptly put
it in the magazine Vanguardia, “Saïd
Hafid is an stunning mixture of swing,
inspiration, vocal quality and the
physical presence of the likes of Ray
Charles, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and
Luciano Pavarotti all rolled into one,
giving an astonishing performance of
Egyptian religious song”. erprêtation du chant religieux
égyptien.
