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Amr Diab

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Amr Abdel Basset Abdel Azeez Diab (Arabic:عمرو عبد الباسط عبد العزيز دياب)born on October 11, 1961 in Port Said, Egypt,is an Egyptian singer, and composer. Diab has become one of the highest selling Middle Eastern artist's of all-time.

Amr is best known for his studio albums, music videos, and songs such as "...Nour El Ein," "Leily Nahari," and "Wala Ala Balo," for which he won a World Music Award, in Monaco. In 1983, Amr Diab released his first studio album ... Ya Tareeq, the album was not a huge success, but was his first step in the music industry. Amr released 3 more albums between 1984, and 1987. It wasn't until 1988, when Amr releaed "Mayaal" when he finally lived his dream of becoming a huge star around the Arab world. The song, "Mayaal" would garner a huge success all around the Middle East, and to this day it's known as one of Amr's best, and most successful songs ever. Other huge success followed in the following years including albums like, "Shawakkna," "Matkhafessh," and "Weylomony".

Diab's 1996 album, "Nour El Ein" took him a further step foward, the song which was called "Habiby" internationally became a phenomenal hit worldwide, and was remixed by many of the worlds top DJ's. A special CD named "Habiby: Remix's" was released later on with all the remixes made worldwide. Amr Diab's 2000 album was named "Tamally Maak", the song which was a great ballad became a huge success and was shot as the single of the album. "Leily Nahari", which was Diab's first album with Rotana was releaed in 2004, and was another great success. The album became Rotana's highest selling album of All-time. Amr Diab's latest album is, El Leila De was released in the summer of 2007, and saw a great success, in Egypt, and all around the Middle East.

Diabs' fame in the music industry has led him to experiment with other forms of mediam, such as Film. Amr's first movie was released in 1993, and was named,Deahk We La'ab (Laughter & Fun). The film premiered in the Egyptian Film Festival in 1993. Amr played alongside International Egyptian movie star Omar Sherif (Lawrence Of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago), in the movie. His second movie, Ice Cream fi Gleem, was also released in '90's. The movie was much more successful than Deahk We La'ab. Amr's success as a singer led him to several very high-profile advertising deals, and endorsments; such as deals with Pepsi.

Amr Diab's personal life was never been the center of the media attractions. He was married in the 80's to Sherine Rida, and in 1990 his oldest daughter, Nour was born. Amr later divorced Sherine, and got married to Zena Ashour, and in 1999, his twin babies Abdullah and Kenzy were born. In 2001, his youngest daughter, Jana was born.

Early life

Amr Diab was born in Port Said, Egypt into an artistic family. His father, Abdul Basset Diab, worked for the Suez Canal Corporation where he was working as a well-known porter in the marina and part time sheep herder. He possessed a fine singing voice and encouraged the young Diab to sing and dance at the mawaled (street festivals) in this early age.

When Diab was just six years old, his father took him to the July 23 Festival at Port Said where they visited the local broadcasting station and Amr made his first singing appearance on Egyptian Radio performing the National Anthem Bilady, Bilady, Bilady. He was praised by the Governor of Port Said who awarded him with a guitar as a prize.


Amr Diab's successful album Nour El Ain (1996)

Nour El Ain

In 1996, Nour El Ain (Light of The Eye – Sight) was released, becoming a tremendous success not only in the Middle East but throughout the entire world. The song was composed by Nasser Elmezdawy, lyrics were written by Ahmed Sheta and it was arranged by Hameed Elshaery. The title track, and its English version "Habibi", was an international phenomenon, becoming a massive crossover hit in countries such as Brazil, Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Argentina, Chile, France and South Africa. It was even more prominent when it was featured as a track in Brazillian telenovela O Clone. The song was remixed by several top European arrangers and has become a big pull on the dance floors of Europe. The video clip, also produced by Alam El Phan for the song "Nour El Ain", was one of the most lavish and expensive productions in the field of Egyptian song, and set a new standard for his contemporaries to aspire to. Nour El Ain has become the best selling album ever released by an Arabic artist.

In 1997, Amr Diab won three Awards at the Annual Arabic Festival (for Best Video, Best Song and Artist of the Year). In the following year, he received a Triple Platinum Award for the sales of Nour El Ain, and received a World Music Award in Monaco on 6 May 1998, under the patronage of H.S.H. Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and attended by such International luminaries as Gloria Estefan, Céline Dion, Mariah Carey, The Backstreet Boys, Steven Segal and others. This award was the first of its kind for an Egyptian artist, emphasising that his appeal is not just confined to the Middle East unlike the majority of his contemporaries.

Awedooni

His follow-up studio album entitled Awedooni was released in July 1998, and as for Nour El Ain it was produced with Hamid El Shary and recorded in Cairo, Egypt. The first video from the album, the title track "Awedooni", was shot by the river Nile in Egypt and directed by Tareq Al Aryan. Like its predecessor, this album was a huge success for Amr and reinforced his popularity in the Arab world and abroad.

The Best of Amr Diab released in early 1999 contained a brand new song "Maham Kibirt Sugheir" recorded as a tribute to the Legends of Arabic music such as Umm Kulthum and Abdel Halim Hafez that have influenced him. A strong ballad with a spectacular video of the concert footage inspired by Puff Daddy (whom he met at the Monaco Awards) it became another big hit for Diab. The album also contains a previously unreleased European remix of "Habibi", and the most popular songs from Amr's albums of the 1990s.

Diab released his July 1999 new studio album Amarain, (two moons) which is hailed as the best work of his career to date. Amr is working on eagerly anticipated duets with the France based international Rai superstar, Khaled of "Didi" fame, and with the Greek singer, Angela Dimitrou, whose crossover smash "Marguerites" was a huge hit across the Middle East in 1998. The title track Amarain is the first video to be broadcast and the album seems certain to confirm Amr's position as the leading and most innovative artist from the Middle East.

Tamally Ma'ak

File:Tamally maak.jpg
Tamally Maak (2000)

Diab made revolutionized Arab music when he issued Tamally Ma'ak. He introduced the Spanish guitar in his song "Tammaly Ma'ak" and in other songs. The clip of this song was made in the Czech Republic with much success. The album contained songs like "Al'alem Allah", "Ba'terf", "Sa'ban Alaea" and "We hea Amla Eah".


Aktar Wahed

On 1 August 2001, and after a great anticipation by the huge number of fans, Aktar Wahed was released. The album's name is a short for one of the songs "Aktar Wahed Beyhebbak". It contains 10 tracks and a bonus oriental remix for the song "Wala Ala Balo". "Wala Ala Balo", a well-studied mash up of both Trance/Techno rhythms and Oriental Arabic Music. The song featured the rapper SandMan. The video on the other hand was shot in London in a discotheque. An even newer style for Amr Diab, he received a number of Platinum Awards for the sales of the album, and received his second World Music Award in Monaco in 2001 for best selling album for middle-eastern singer, the album contains a good number of significant songs like "Adeeni Rege'telek", "Ya Habeeby La", "Sadda'ni Khalas" and "Ba'edd Ellayali".

File:Leily nahary.jpg
Shot from Amr Diab's video for Lealy Nahary (2004)

Allem Albi

Later in 2003, Diab released Allem Alby (Teach My Heart). The album's release date was arranged to be with the debut broadcast of Alam El Phan's (Allem Alby's Production Company, Owned by Mohsen Gaber) music channel "Mazzika".

The album was a great success, with the release of the video "Ana Ayesh" which was directed by Stuart Gosling. The video was intensely broadcasted on Mazzika . The album contains other songs, like the album-titled "Allem Alby" which is a solid R&B influenced hit. Others that tend to be more oriental like "Kolohom", "Law Ash'any" and "Alli El Wada'".

Rotana

In between 2003 and 2004, and after a long successful career with Alam El Phan, Diab officially announced the termination of his contract with Mohsen Gaber (owner of Alam El Phan). Rumors were spread around about the tense situation going on between Gaber and Diab. Then other rumors circulated that Saudi Prince Waleed Bin Talal (owner of Rotana) has lured Amr with offering a better deal.

In the second half of 2006, unconfirmed news have been reported saying that Amr Diab will no longer be working with rotana, and that he has secretly signed a blockbuster 3 albums and 2 films contract with Cairo-based film production company Good News for Film and Music owned by his friend Adel Adeeb

File:Lealy Nahary.jpg
Album cover for Leily Nahari (2004)

Leily Nahary

In late summer of 2004, Diab's first album with Rotana was released, titled Leily Nahary (My Nights, My Days). The album's cover was from the promotional photo shoot of Pepsi. The video "Leily Nahari" directed by Casey Cameron which provided aid to give Amr his space in the record-exclusive music channels. It was still criticized because of its similarity to his previously unreleased video for "El Alem Allah" from the album Tamally Ma'ak.

Kammel Kalamak (Keep Talking)

Diab's latest album, Kammel Kalamak is the long anticipated follow up to Leily Nahary. It was rumoured to be released in the summer of 2005 but was pushed back to Eid. The album took a reported $4M to record, and is Rotana's biggest album of 2005.

Full album releases appeared on many websites prior to its official release, which is speculated to be the reason why the album's release date was suddenly shortened to a few days prior to the previously mentioned release date.

The love ballad "We Malo" was released as the single of the album, Kammel Kalamak. The music video was shot in London and was released on a late notice after the release of the album. Rumors surfaced in late 2005 and early 2006 stated that Amr is considering terminating his contract with Rotana due to the poor promotion of his latest album, Kammel Kalamak.

El Leila De (Tonight)

The album was originally set to be released after Ramadan 2006. However, it was pushed back several times due to Diab's repeated changes in the musical producers he was dealing with. Diab attributes the changes to the producer's lack of new and strong styles. In early 2006, Music Arranger Fahd was supposed to work on this album; however, later that year Dr. Tarek Madkour joined Amr Diab, and they started together to work on it. On 25 March 2007, Madkour's official website announced that Amr Diab and Madkour had decided jointly to skip the collaboration on the album due to the lack of time and conflicting working schedules. Fahd and a new producer called Hasan Al Shafei are elected to produce the music in the album, which is supposed to hit the markets in July 2007, also the name Khaleek Ma'aya is changed, El Leila De is the current suggested title, after the release Amr will shoot a new Pepsi advertisement in Europe. On June 21 2007, two of the biggest sites(AmrDiabWorld.com & AmrDiab.info) for Amr Diab announced that the album, now entitled El Lilady, would hit the market on July 7 2007. The album would contain 10 tracks; AL Shafei and Fahd shared the production Al Shaei 7 songs & Fahd 3 Songs. Before releasing his album, Diab traveled to Portugal to shoot the new Pepsi ad choosing "Inta El Ghaly" song from his upcoming album El Leila De as the ad music. Amr then traveled to the USA to film the music video for his upcoming album.

The 10 tracks included in El Leila De are finalized and set in the following order on the upcoming album: 1. Ne Oul Eih 2. El Leila De 3. Toul Ma 'Ana Shaifak 4. Hekayat 5. Inta El Ghaly 6. Rohy Mertahalak 7. Aletly Oul 8. We Fehmt Einak 9. Dekhet 10. Khalik Ma'aya

The album master copy was given to Rotana, Amr Diab's cd production company, on the last week of June to meet the 07/07/07 release date he had planned earlier. Rotana however has delayed the release of the new CD for a couple of days for unknown reasons. The album has also been leaked but Diab's increasing fan base have impressively not allowed the leaked copy to be distributed on the internet although later on sadly, it got actually leaked. The album was officially released on July 11th, 2007. The album has already become a huge hit in Egypt and all over the middle-east. The album sold over 1,000,000 copies in only 5 days of release. The video clip has been slated for a July 27th release. The song that Amr chose to film was N'eoul Eih, which is unique with the new style of Techno mixed with oriental Arabic music. The video clip was filmed in " California " Santa Monica & Malibu in HollyWooD area. El Leila De has once again proved that Amr Diab is the middle east's top singer. On July 27th, Rotana News announced that "El Leila De" has sold over 2 million copies in less than two weeks in the middle east, which gives the album a good chance to surpass "Kammel Kalamaks" 3 million copies in one month. The album is currently available to buy on many websites.

N'eoul Eih Video Clip

The most anticipated video clip of 2007, N'eoul Eih, was released on August 14th, 2007. Released on Rotana TV for the first time, the video was a great success. It was released minutes later on a Egyptian program named "El Beit Betak", on EGYPT TV. The video was directed by young Egyptian Director, Marwan Hamed, and was filmed in California with a budget of $1,000,000. The video clip featured Natalie Martinez who was featured in "Fashion House" the most common TV show in the role of Michel. The high budget video was praised for it's simplicty, something that has not been seen in videos in the Middle East these years.

Future

After the release of "El Leila De", Amr Diab's contract will have officially ended with Rotana. Rumours have been spreading that he will sign with Good News 4 Music, while Rotana tries to re-sign him to another contract. Although Rotana's 20 Million offer is higher than Good New's 18 Million, Amr Diab will probably sign with Good News, after the very poor promotion for his previous album with Rotana.

Endorsements

Amr Diab has taken part in an internationally known Pepsi commercial featuring four other pop musicians; Beyoncé Knowles, Pink, Jennifer Lopez, and Britney Spears. In the US version, Enrique Iglesias takes the role of the Cesar. But in the pan Arab version, the four American singers were maintained but the male figure was replaced with Diab. This was not the first Pepsi commercial Diab has done; he also filmed one using his songs "Ana Aktar wahed", "Allem Alby" and "Khad Alby Ma'aa". Diab also appeared in a commercial along side Jennifer Lopez, singing The Troggs hit "Wild Thing". The latest Commercial by Amr Diab was filmed in Portugal, and was officially released on August 4th, 2007. Amr Diab used the song "Enta El Ghaly" from his "El Leila De" album in the commercial.

Personal life

Amr Diab has four children. His oldest daughter, Nour was born in 1990 from his ex-wife Sherine Rida; his twins, Abdullah and Kenzy were born in 1999; and his youngest daughter, Jana was born in 2001. Amr's second wife, and mother of his three youngest, is Zena Ashour. Amr Diab currently resides in Cairo.

Discography

  • El Leila De (Tonight) (2007)
  • Kammel Kalamak (Keep Talking) (2005)
  • Leily Nahary (My nights, My days) (2004)
  • Allem Alby (Teach My heart) (2003)
  • Aktar Wahed (The Most One) (2001)
  • Tamally Maak (Always with you) (2000)
  • Amarain (Two Moons) (1999)
  • Awedony (They Make Me Used To) (1998)
  • Nour El Ain (Light Of The Eye) (1996)
  • Rag'een (We're Returning) (1995)
  • Weylomony (And They Blame Me) (1994)
  • Zekrayat (Memories) (1994)
  • Ya Omrina (Our Lifetime) (1993)
  • Ayyamna (Our Days) (1992)
  • Ice Cream Fe Gleem (Ice-cream In Glym) (1992)
  • Habiby (My Darling) (1991)
  • Matkhafeesh (Don't Be Afraid) (1990)
  • Shawwa'na (Excite us) (1989)
  • Mayyal (Susceptible) (1988)
  • Khalseen (We're Even) (1987)
  • Hala Hala (Welcome) (1986)
  • Ghanny Men Albak (Sing From Your Heart) (1984)
  • Ya Tareek (Hey Road) (1983)

Unreleased singles

  • "Allah Aleeha"
  • "Wehyat Eneik"
  • "Ana Mahma Kbert"
  • "Ya Nasee Wa`dak"
  • "Rooh Alby"
  • "Elly Bene We Benak"
  • "Bahabak"
  • "Sebtak"
  • "Salemtelak"
  • "Ana Delw`te"
  • "Steen Million Fedai'" ( To President Hosni Mubarak after assassination attempt in Addis Ababa)
  • "El Qods Di Ardena"


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