Shaabi baby | El Sah El Dah Embo (1973)

Egyptian Wedding, 1970s

As Ahmed records the track, everyone in the studio is convinced it's destined to become a hit; accordingly, Montaser prints 1,000 copies and gives five freebies to the shop below his office. He later notices a crowd has gathered around the shop, which turns out to be a collection of random folks listening over and over to the soon-to-be hit single. By midnight, the first pressing of 1,000 has sold out.

A new, urban, as-yet-unnamed genre is emerging in early '70s Cairo: shaabi. Ahmed immerses himself in its incipient culture, studying Mohamed Abdel Muttalib, Shafiq Galal, Mohamed al-Izabi, and Mohamed Rushdi, who all, according to James R. Grippo, "tirelessly work the [Cairo] nightclub circuit."

Grippo distinguishes between two distinct shaabis. The word literally means folk, traditional, and popular, and the OG traditional folk is rural, based in longstanding oral tradition, passed down "by hereditary musicians." The mawwal is presumably an element or closely related.

The second version, Grippo argues, takes aspects of the folkloric -- the mawwal being one of them -- but is distinctly urban, its songs "original" and "new." Both arise from and appeal to "common people," but the rural practitioners -- and scholars and some historians focused on their legacies -- seem to resent the urban version as well as the "shaabi" label. 

Actress and singer Sherifa Fadel, who passed away last year, seems to posit a third manifestation: shaabi-adjacent pop, a kind of shaabi chic. (Not to be confused with a slightly later genre, shababi.) The granddaughter of Koran reciter Ahmed Nada and sister of lesser-known singer Sana Nada, Sherifa studies performance at the Institute of Dramatic Art. She acts in films from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. She releases her first hit single, "Amana Ya Bokra," in the late 1950s, but she is at the height of her success as a singer in the late '60s-early '70s.

Sherifa was a mildly prolific artist; Discogs catalogs 83 of her releases, 71 of which are 45 RPM 7" singles. She presumably released more than that: "امانه يا بكره (Amana Ya Bokra) is nowhere to be found on the site (although it is listenable via YouTube). 

While not considered a shaabi or folkloric singer, Sherifa releases a duet in 1964 with Mohamed Taha, "Fallah," which means farmer, peasant, yokel, peasantry. It's not a duet in the conventional sense. There are no harmonies; it's not even call and response. The music is composed by Mounir Mourad, brother of former superstar Leila Mourad, with lyrics by Istanbul-born Egyptian actor and lyricist Hussein El Sayed.

On the front sleeve, Fadel and Taha are visually separated but also rendered as distinctly separate types, as if they are from different classes, neighborhoods, or situations (i.e., urban vs. rural). Note how Sherifa is made to appear much larger, almost sculptural, iconic, whereas Taha, on the lower right, looks up to her in his humble garb, ney in hand, ready and at her service, awaiting her cue for him to begin. 

(Listen to "Fallah")

Numerous accounts, including Andrew Simon's, credit Sherifa for leading Ahmed to the man who oversees what will become his first monster hit, "El Sah El Dah Embo": lyricist and Sout El Hob associate, Mamoun El Shinawi.

According to his Arabic Wikipedia page, "Fame came to [Ahmed] in 1972 through the wedding anniversary of the singer Sherifa Fadel, which was attended by a number of artists and journalists. The owner of the Arizona Casino was present at the party and offered him a job there." Presumably, by this account, El Shinawi sees Ahmed perform at the Arizona, and subsequently offers him a recording contract though Sout El Hob. (We'll see about that.)

El Shinawi's career extends back some three decades prior; he had written lyrics in the 1940s for Sabah and Leila Mourad. Some of his most famous credits include Oum Kalthoum's "Baeed Anak" (Baligh Hamdi, music) and Farid El Atrache's "Awal Hamsa." He would also, later, provide Ahmed with lyrics for some of his songs as well.

Sout El Hob was founded in approximately 1972 by Atef Montaser after meeting El Shinawi, who tosses out the idea of a label to cure the young businessman's boredom. The El Dahih video cites a 1973 Hany Shaker single as their first release. Discogs lists a Farid El Atrache cassette from 1972; however, on close inspection, the label is actually Voice of Lebanon and Sout El Hob is credited with "duplication." Montaser releases a number of singles in 1973 and quickly discover he's launched too late in the game to make a quick buck off tarab.

Andrew Simon writes that El Shinawi serves as "artistic advisor" on Ahmed's hit track. The El Dahih video notes that El Shinawi, in his role as "consultant" for Sout El Hob, suggests they tap into the emerging shaabi phenomenon. One night, according to the video, Montaser and El Shinawi hit up the Andalus nightclub (not the Arizona?), where they encounter Ahmed performing a mawwal. Impressed by Ahmed's voice, Montaser gives the young singer his card, suggesting he stop by the office the next day and they produce a series of mawawil for release on Sout El Hob.

When Ahmed stops by the next day, Montaser steps out for a moment and returns to witness the artist drumming on the table, singing "El Sah El Dah Embo." The budding music mogul quickly abandons the mawawil idea in favor of this potential pop hit. Or, at least, that's one version of the story. Others, as the video admits, include the possibility that El Shinawi is responsible for suggesting they record the hit track.

Who writes "El Sah El Dah Embo"? The general consensus is that the music is composed by accordionist Sheikh Taha; its lyrics by shaabi singer-songwriter al-Rayyis Bira. Discogs lists only two singles featuring Sheikh Taha as artist: "Najwa's Music" b/w "Hassan's Music" and "Hassan's Music" b/w "Najwa's Music." There are 10 total releases of these tracks; none of them are dated.

(Listen to "Hassan's Music")

Lyricist al-Rayyis Bira, whose real name is Khalīl Muḥammad Khalīl, is cited on Discogs on three1973 singles: two on Sout El Hob (as lyricist for Ahmed's "El Sah El Dah Embo" and lyricist and singer for his own "Duniya Gharura," for whom Ibrahim Ashmawi composes the music) and one on Moriphone (as lyricist for Sherifa's sister Sana Nada's "Qashr Al Bunduq").

 

(Listen to al-Rayyis Bira's "Duniya Gharura")

But the El Dahih video suggests that authorship of Ahmed's first hit is still in debate. Some believe Ahmed wrote it himself. Others believe his old mentor Abdo Dagher wrote the music, still others posit Farouk Salama. 

To further complicate the narrative, the video then argues that "El Sah El Dah Embo" has a history predating Ahmed's single, having been sung at parties and baby showers in the 1950s and as part of a Mohmoud Shokoukou monolog. 

As Ahmed records the track, everyone in the studio is convinced it's destined to become a hit; accordingly, Montaser prints 1,000 copies and gives five freebies to the shop below his office. He later notices a crowd has gathered around the shop, which turns out to be a collection of random folks listening over and over to the soon-to-be hit single. By midnight, the first pressing of 1,000 has sold out.

The title of the song is in a kind of baby talk. The general idea is that the two male characters, baby and adult, are "thirsty." For water, apparently, but the single's cover below suggests (suggestively) something else they might be craving. (Watch this El Dahih short for a bit of creative etymology vis-a-vis the lyrics.)

Suggestiveness and a keen ear for double entendre is what, in part, accounts for Ahmed's wild popularity, and what keeps him, despite a voice most everyone seems to agree is one the greatest to have ever come out of Egypt, from breaking into official channels, despite being arguably the country's second-most-popular artist after Oum Kalthoum. Though, when critics complain of Ahmed's vulgarity, it's also his use of the colloquial, the rejection of high Arabic poetry, they're protesting, and not simply salaciousness. After all, as the El Dahih video reminds us, it isn't as if Oum never sang about lust.

(Listen to "El Sah El Dah Embo")

The B side features a short mawwal with music again by Sheikh Taha and words by Egyptian lyricist Sayed Qashqoush.

(Listen to "Mawwal")

The single is repressed and reissued several times in a handful of countries, including Lebanon and France. The Parisain label Chandor releases of the single with the A Side transliterated as "Sah Dah Anboh"; "Mawwal" on the flipside is renamed "Bolbol Outair Filhawa."

(Listen to "Sah Dah Anboh")

(Listen to "Bolbol Outair Filhawa")