Minyans
One could pitch Minya-born Ahmed Adaweya and shababi composer Omar El Shariyi as twin pivotal figures, signaling a sharp turn in Egyptian popular music. Not right or left, but down. As in from high to low. As in, GET down. June 26, 1945. In Minya (المنيا), a small town 150 miles south of Cairo straddling the Nile, Ahmed Muhammad Morsi Al-Adawi is born into a livestock merchant's family. The Minya Governorate's storied fertility (the region supplied the world cotton when the United States plunged into Civil War) extends to the Al-Adawis: Ahmed arrives as the 13th of what will be 14 total children. In that same decade, the Minya Governorate provides Egypt with the future First Lady Suzanne Mubarak (b. 1941) and the great blind film, TV, and pop composer Omar El Shariyi (b. 1948). Ahmed and Omar never collaborate, despite their proximity in age and geographical origin. Omar, whose father is the Mayor of the neighboring township Samalut, is of a higher class and relocates to Cai