Egypt bans 'music of the slums'
Egypt's powerful Musicians Syndicate bans mahraganat music and asks streaming giants to take down the songs with "unethical lyrics."
“Please do not punish my child,” a woman in her 50s tearfully told the reporter of Mehwar TV channel. She offered no name, except to say that she is the mother of Hamo Bika, a popular singer.
Her son, with his trademark of gelled hair and a thick chain around his neck, was also beside her as she received the TV reporter at her modest home in Imbaba, a working-class neighborhood in northern Cairo.
The plea of Bika’s mother was aimed at the powerful Egyptian Musicians Syndicate, which has banned the singers of “mahraganat," a hybrid music genre that combines folk with electronic music and uses colloquialism in lyrics, from pursuing their profession. The genre, whose name literally means “festivals” in Arabic, originated in the Cairo slums in the early 2000s.
The ban, announced on Feb. 16, said that the street musicians' songs promote “unethical and immoral” behavior in society — a reference to the lyrics of the song that started the controversy on Feb. 14. The song, called "Bent el-Geran" ("The Neighbor's Daughter"), suggests alcohol and hashish to get over a heartbreak.
