Article informationAuthor, Muhammad Hamdar Role, BBC News Arabic
3 hours ago
In Bahri, the oldest neighborhood in Alexandria, known for its heritage landmarks dating back to the Fatimid and Ayyubid eras, workshops of ship and boat craftsmen, and fish restaurants facing the sea, was born in the early 1930s, in the role of Mustafa Ahmed Al-Shami, in Haret Al-Bundaqa.
Many will not remember the name Baddour, because its owner was known by her artistic name, “Badriya Al-Sayyid” or “Badara,” and for years she sat on the throne of popular music in her city, and was nicknamed “The Queen of Alexandrian Mawal.”
Badriya Al-Sayyed retired from art and wore the hijab, before her death in 1989. But her artistic influence remained strongly present, especially in Alexandria, the city that formed the focus of her songs, with its characters, landmarks, and details of her life.
Recently, the song “Justice Above All”, voiced by Badriya Al-Sayyed, spread on social media platforms, and achieved huge listening numbers on music applications, after it was broadcast during one of the episodes of the series “The Killer of Giza.”
The series is inspired by a true story, about an Egyptian man, who killed four people, including his wife, between 2015 and 2018, and is widely followed on the “Shahid” platform.
Badara’s name is still present in the memory of the people of Alexandria, even among the generation that did not experience her singing era. With the spread of the song “Justice Above All”, her other famous songs and songs returned to appear on the accounts of social media users, proving the extent of her presence in the memory of Egyptian folk music.
The beginning of the mawal says: “Justice is above all and is adored by created beings. The son of the Ghafir and the minister are created from the dust.”
Image source: elwady
Alexandria’s voice and image
“When I hear her voice, I feel Alexandria. She was singing an Alexandrian tune,” says Sayed Rabie, a flute player in the Badara band, who spoke about the late singer’s legacy, in a report published on the “Zat Masr” website, two years ago.
In the video, three musicians appear who accompanied Badriya Al-Sayed: Alaa El-Din Ali, Sayed Rabie, and Salem Nasser El-Din. They participate with musicians from the new generation in playing Badara songs.
The youngest percussionist in Badriya El-Sayed’s band, Alaa El-Din Ali, says that for him it is “the lighthouse of Alexandria.”
Badriya Al-Sayed sang stories, characters, and scenes from the city in which she lived the details of her daily life, but she was originally the daughter of a Rashidiya family, that is, from the coastal city of Rashid in northern Egypt.
In one of her most famous songs, “Idlaa Ya Rashidi,” she paints for us a picture of the sailor when she says: “My lake, oh Wadi Bahiri, and ah from Al-Bahrawiyya, and I’m stuck with Al-Sudairi, Al-Lasa, and the hat.”
In another clip from the same song, she says: “Oh, come out with a felucca and the rudder is in your hand, empty of mind and satisfied, uncle, may God increase you.”
She takes us on a tour of the seaside promenade with the song “Give us a break, O Usta, turn and turn, calm down and make the path sweet, leave the donkey with the stagecoach like the qanun and the darbuka.”
It is as if Badara is contributing, through her songs, to preserving the city’s heritage in the memory of its people and the memory of Egyptians.
Queen of Alexandrian mawal
Badriya Al-Sayyed applied to work on the radio in 1954, after it was announced that she would receive auditions for voices of both genders. She succeeded and gained the attention of composer Muhammad Al-Hamaki, who contributed to her launch and the beginning of her fame.
Badara and a group of women in Egyptian folk music, such as Rouh Al-Fouad, Gamalat Shiha, Fatima Eid, and Khadra Mohamed Khidr, occupy a high place in the rich Egyptian musical heritage. Each of them has a special color and tone.
Professor of singing at Alexandria University, Dr. Mohamed Hosni, told BBC News Arabic that Badara combined the Saedi and Falah colors, and this is a feature that is not found among many.
Badara was his mother’s family’s favorite singer. For Hosni, her voice quickly conjures images of ancient Alexandria.
Image source: anghami
He says that the weddings of notables and the middle class in Egypt attracted a large number of invitees, in order to listen to Badara, whose presence was necessary and essential at “popular weddings” and public events.
Hosni is the son of the generation that restored Badara’s songs, so he worked on a musical experience entitled “Estihar” that combines Badriya al-Sayyid’s experience with that of Sheikh Amin Abu Ahmed, the Alexandrian singer.
Badara was also famous for performing popular songs, the most famous of which are “Talaat on the Rooftops” and “Justice Above All.”
Al-Mawwal has a strong presence in Egypt’s popular and musical culture. It has different forms or functions, such as the long narrative mawwal that tells a story, such as the mawwal of “Hassan and Naima,” or the “lesson” mawwal that carries a lesson or wisdom, or the mawwal that narrates heroic tales, such as the mawwal of “Adham Al-Sharqawi.”
Not a single Badara era passed without the Alexandrian girl appearing to her fans on the big screen. She participated in the movie “The Kingdom of Hallucinations” in the role of “Teacher Baltia” alongside Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, Saeed Saleh, Hussein Fahmy, Athar Al-Hakim, and Magda Al-Khatib. She sang in the film alongside popular singer Ahmed Adawiya.
2023-09-08 04:46:26
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