10:15 pm
Saturday 12 November 2022
Books – Wael Tawfik:
The singer of the popular song, Shafiqa, started her artistic life by imitating “light” songs, until the composer Ahmed El-Gamal changed her direction to a special musical color through which she achieved her fame and permanent presence for more than 40 years.
Composer Ahmed El-Gamal told “Masrawy” that he asked her to work at popular parties and weddings where he lives in Damanhour. She says, “She was at Tanta and she sang regular market jobs like this, light songs like (ask why Alia), things for Shadia, so I took her with me to weddings, said I’ll do your job, and we started and completed 10 years together.
The first song ‘The Camel’ composed for ‘Shafiqa’ was the song ‘You complain, oh my eyes, oh my eyes’ written by him, and they lasted for many years together. He composed most of his songs for her and wrote a large number of them: “The song (Rajee Tani) was the closest song to Shafiqa. Most of the time”.
‘The Camel’, the lead singer of the popular song, Shafiqa, describes that she was a ‘theatre girl’ who had commanding stage presence.
It tells “The Camel”, a singer who appeared in recent years singing by the name of “Shafiqa” came to visit me at home with her husband and asked me for songs, so I asked them to get permission from the Authors Association first and composers.
Shafiqa refused to sing in casinos and nightclubs throughout his life, preferring to sing at weddings. Ahmed El-Gamal says: ‘She didn’t like singing in these places. She loved parties and weddings, and she got the highest salaries of course I mean, a person gets 10, and she, for example, gets 15 thousand pounds, but not ‘she did. The material is important to her.
Al-Jamal points out that Shafiqa was a “country girl” who believed everyone, and over-trusted everyone. She added: ‘He was like Sherine, who believed anyone, and one of her husbands took all her money from her, and once she told him about The phone was in front of me and I scolded him, but he laughed and he wasn’t interested, as long as he took the money.
In his final days, Shafiqa asked composer Ahmed El-Gamal to travel to the city of Tanta with poet Mohamed Zalouk, he continues: “He told me he wanted a song for joy, so I made it, but before that ‘She had memorized or she went into a study, she died, and she had an Alzheimer’s degree, she ultimately didn’t know.”
In the last few hours, talks about Shafiqa’s career have reappeared, following the announcement of a documentary film on his biography, which should be unveiled shortly.
