Saturday, November 10, 2012

Sayed Mekawy, The Sweetest Blind Arab Musicians


Growing up with no sight in your eye must be tough and it must give people limited resources and unlimited challenges, one Egyptian man refused to see himself this way. Sayed Mekawy is one legendary and iconic Arab composer, singer who have shaped the contemporary Arabic music scene. He had added dozens of hits to the Arab classical library and most of us grew up listening to his iconic songs.

His songs are part of the collective Arab heritage that manged to captivate all Arabs without regard to culture  dialect of musical style. Sayed Mekawy refused using modern musical technological of his time and instead focused on the basics. He made pure and original Arabic music using his lute.

Sayed Mekawy was not born blind, he cried for days after the death of his father, and he stopped crying but the tears kept flowing and days later he would lose his eyesight. Undeterred by this disability, he wont onw to learn the Koran and recite it so well. Slowly he made the transition to music by doing religious themed songs  for Ramadan and other holy occasions.

His songs ended up touching on all the important economic, social, intellectual and political issues directly concerning the less privileged classes. He wrote music for almost all popular singers, except Abdel Halim Hafez. He did work with Oum Kalthoum. He has performed hundreds of songs and toured most Arab countries where he took his show. Among his legacy is adding to the Egyptian folklor music and especially the operetta Al-Leila Al-Kebira ("The Big Night")

Aside form his political and nationalist songs, he has some of the most romantic songs that live on and tell tales of this man's talent.

‏ سيد مكاوي حفلة بغداد : اغنية ما تفوتنيش انا وحدي


حلوين من يومنا والله - سيد مكاوي

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