INTERVIEW WITH HISHAM ABBAS





A: My full name is Mohammed Hisham Mahmoud Abbas. I'm a Virgo, born on September 13th. I studied at Dar El Tarbeya school and spent my last two school years in Nigeria where I did my GCEs. After that, I majored in mechanical engineering and graduated from the American University in Cairo.

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A: When I was a little boy, I had an aunt who used to gather all the kids in our family and sing us songs that we would perform in front of the rest of the family. We used to sing songs like "Fatouma" and "Ya Wad Ya Te'eil". Being the only boy among six cousins, I was of course the one who got all the masculine leading roles. Nevertheless, I was a very shy boy and could only sing freely when I was alone. I used to sing sad songs like those by Abdel Halim and Abdel Wahab. Later, I started singing in class while drumming on the desks with my friends, who helped me overcome my shyness. We used to sing the trendy songs by Ahmed Adaweya such as "Salametha Om Hassan" and "Habba Fouk We Habba Taht".

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A: The jungle life I had in Nigeria contrasted greatly with my life in Egypt. I used to have many pets like monkeys, dogs, cats and lizards. It was even a common thing to see elephants pass by our house! We had no clubs, no TV, only radio, so we used to sing and create our own fun. My friends and I had a band and we loved to sing Reggae - Bob Marley's songs - and also songs by Sting, Lionel Richie and Steve Wonder. A Nigerian friend of mine once asked me to read the Quran aloud, so I started reading the Quran to my friends quite often. They were all really fascinated as it was their first time to hear the Quran in Arabic. Before that, they had only read the English version.

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A: When I came back to Egypt, I decided to go to university in Alexandria. I used to sing to friends, songs like Mohammed Mounir's "Hadouta Masria" (An Egyptian Story) and Ammar El Sherei's "Maa El Ayam" (With The Days). I only stayed there for a short time because I had to study everything in Arabic and that didn't suit me very well. So I went to the AUC. First, I didn't like the atmosphere there at all, and the number of subjects we had to study made life quite hard. At the beginning of my AUC life, I was going through a religious phase. I used to pray at the mosque everyday and would never listen to music or watch TV. That was when I was about 16-18.



INTERVIEW WITH MOSTAFA AMMAR



What's your real name?

Mostafa Ahmed M. Ammar

What was your life like before you started professional singing?

I was born and raised in Alexandria and went to school and college there. Since I was nine or ten years old, I started to learn music and play the guitar. There was this teacher at school who used to teach me and his name was "Oum Kalthoum", what a coincidence! I actually loved music so much, that I'd play the guitar all day and wouldn't study at all. But when it came to college, I entered the Faculty of Commerce and I decided to study music during the summer through free courses, in the Conservatoire at Alexandria.

But how did your career as a professional singer begin?

Well, I used to sing to friends in college parties, that was at the beginning of the 80's, and then other parties followed. Then I was approached by hotel managers and though I was hesitant at first, I started singing at Sheraton Montaza where I had my own program, two days a week. In time, I was probably Alexandria's no.1 singer and I used to sing in festivals along with other famous singers from all around Egypt. But till I released tapes, I was only known in Alex. Until one day my friend Hamid El Sha'ery told me "You've got a very nice voice, why not record a tape?" I wasn't sure at first but after four months, I made up my mind, and we hit the record company We recorded my first album "Zein", then "Ola, Ola" followed by others. After that I became famous all around Egypt, from Egypt to Arab countries and from there to the Arabs in Europe and the States.

What type of music inspires you?

My first love was western music, and I adore the classic guitar. In the late seventies, I was inspired by Elvis Presely, The Bonny M, then pop music and the likes of John Travolta and The Bee Gee's, and then Michael Jackson came with albums like "Bad" and "Thriller". But what really affected me was what we call the Franco Music. And the first one to ever start it was Mohamed Mounir with his album "Shababik" and "Hadouta Masria". And that was how I sang a lot of my songs like "Ein Habibi", "Shaghel Baloh", "Bianola" and the most recent "Tal El Leil".

What about your new movie?

This is my first chance in the cinema; it was a very scary but interesting experience and I really enjoyed it. I was mostly afraid because people would start to compare me to other singers who made movies and sang in them like Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid El Atrash and others, and wondered whether they would like me. But after the producer told me about the story and my role, I just couldn't say no. Besides, a movie lives much longer then any song in the minds of people; all this made me very eager to do the movie.