In the arrival hall of Cairo International Airport, pictures of Umm Kulthum, Abdel Wahhab and Abdel Halim, which is definitely a tribute to the three giants, does this mean that the stature and achievement of Abdel Wahhab are equal to his student Abdel Halim?
Publishing pictures of the same size does not mean that giving is the same, but the feeling that reaches you as you look forward to those pictures is that each of them is in their place and through their experience deserves to become a title for Egypt with Naguib Mahfouz, Magdy Yaqoub and Ahmed Zewail, and if it were up to me, I would add my pictures Omar Sharif and Mohamed Salah .
Some have a view that is devoid of reverence for the performer in singing or acting. For Umm Kulthum, for example, in the sixties, obtaining the State Appreciation Award was not easy. There are voices that consider that the performer, no matter how high his creativity has reached, does not deserve to be equal to someone who writes poetry or creates music. President Abdel Nasser, and he was known to be a fan of (Al-Sitt), resolved that issue, and awarded her the award, and the Puritans remained silent after that.
Last Wednesday, at the Hanager Theatre, the great musician Mohamed Abdel Wahhab and the great singer Mohamed Mounir were honored, and I wrote an article about some common points that link the creators, despite the difference in giving and the distance of years.
She attended the ceremony and received the Abdel Wahhab Award from the Minister of Culture, Dr. Nevin Al-Kilani, Mrs. Effat, the daughter of the great musician, and her granddaughter was with her, which was also repeated with Muhammad Mounir.
The friendly music critic Amjad Mostafa wrote an article commenting on my article, and he believes that the honor is not permissible to bring together Munir and Abdel Wahhab, and it is a point related to the angle of view from which you look at the event, because I see that there has never been a sense of equality, and he published a letter to the son of the great musician Ahmed Muhammad Abdel Wahhab confirms the refusal to be honored, while the presence of his sister, Effat, confirms that the family is satisfied.
I do not see it as a fundamental issue. Hani Muhanna, when he was president of the Federation of Artistic Syndicates, decided to return to the Art Festival in 2014, which stopped during the time of Hosni Mubarak, and he chose March 13 because it is Abdel Wahhab’s birthday. ?, Or who believes that Youssef Bey Wahbi’s birthday is the one who deserves that status?
Why are such issues raised in which we waste energy? I see them out of context and deduct a lot. I would have preferred that Muhammad Mounir be allowed to deliver a speech to tell us how he received the news of his honor at a ceremony in which the musicians of generations are also honored. I do not know how this was missed by the creative organizer of the celebration. Khaled Jalal?
When the conflict was raging between Farid al-Atrash and Abdel-Halim Hafez, Abdel-Halim, with all his intelligence and cunning, extinguished the flames of the battle, saying, “How do they put me in one sentence with the professor, and I (with God) are a singer, while Farid is a great musician who is supposed to be placed with Abdel-Wahhab.” And the situation ends completely, Those words satisfied Farid and his lovers.
Abdel Wahhab is an exception in his field and history, and Muhammad Mounir is also an exception, and it is not permissible to compare the two dates or the two achievements.
I imagine that those were Mounir’s feelings when he learned of his honor with Abdel Wahhab. Have some of us become specialists in stealing joy!!
