Salama to Arabstoday: Young singers lost their musical identity

Egyptian musician and pianist Fathy Salama is currently in a flurry of activities, preparing for concerts at the Egyptian Opera House as well as other projects. Arabstoday caught up with him to talk about his passion: Eastern-style music. "I had to turn down four concerts recently because of the political events that Egypt has been going through, but I felt, as an Egyptian, that now was the right time to get out of the cycle of following political controversies through music,"  he said. On the music scene and the changes that have affected it, he said: "The new crop of artists think that can produce a new project every day, which actually doesn't make sense. The older generation would work on one project for a while year until it sees the light of day, like Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Abdel Halim Hafez and other creative artists who enriched Egyptian and Arab art. But this new generation, they want to just bring out a new song, without any study or development. "Identity is one of the main problems from which Egyptian music is suffering. Most songs on the scene at the moment — for example, revolutionary songs — are essentially Western in nature with Arabic lyrics stuck on. A large section of the new generation suffers from limited horizons and a lack talent. This is obvious in the way in which they repeat melodies and tunes." We asked him about his band, Sharkiat. He said: "It's the band I started in 1988 to take the Arab and Eastern music for which we have stood out and represent it in a new, modernised guise. Arab music is rich in rhythms and elements that are unique to it in the world. I don't try to add this spirit to music in order to make it more international. Westerners really enjoy listening to Yassin el-Touhami, who sings religious chants, and they don't understand the words or the genre, but they totally respect that it's different and has its own identity that is not copied from their own tradition. So we find that some of them say they know Umm Kulthum really well. "Someone has to preserve the Eastern musical tradition and identity. Reaching a global audience is not, as some people believe, copying a Western tune. This is among the new generation's false beliefs and it's totally wrong. Westerners really appreciate those who preserve their original identity." He added: "I stopped working because producers kept insisting on repeating songs that had become hits. I tried a lot with producers and singers who are well-known in the music world to try and improve and develop music, but singers themselves are now businessmen. And I am personally against singers turning into businessmen. But if they want for this to be their sole profession, then they'd better develop it. Art is part of society, and if a singer wants to repeat himself, then he's contributing to his audience's ignorance. Singers' fear of failure has caused listeners to lose respect for them. If you ask a taxi driver, for example, 'Who do you listen to on the radio?' he says 'Dunno, it's just a noise in my ears.' This is disrespect for art, but the artist is himself responsible for it." For all his insistence on innovation, Salama welcomes covering old songs. He said: "Reviving old stuff is better than making new stuff that isn't satisfying. Reviving vanished traditions that young people don't know about is even better." Lamenting the ministry of culture's work in traditional music, he said "its role is almost nonexistent. For years, the ministry lacked funding, and now it's fighting a war between religious prohibitions and permissions." Salama is currently working with Tunisian singer Ghalia on a "massive" Umm Kulthum revival project which will be presented in Europe. He is also scheduled to perform in concerts in March and April.