EGYPT: Arab pop stars gather for annual music video clip awards

Pop stars and other music artists from around the Arab world gather in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada for 8th annual Oscar International Video Clip Festival. Amongst the winners were Kuwaiti singer Shams, Tunisian singer Suma and Egyptian singer Nabila Ebeid. Artists from all over the Arab world attended the 8th annual Oscar International Video Clip Festival in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada on Sunday (July 29). The event celebrates the work of musical artists and their music videos, which are known in the Arab world as 'video clips'. Amongst the winners was Kuwaiti singer Shams who voiced her joy at being the only female singer from the Gulf to win an award in the contest. "I am the only Gulf woman taking this prize today as the best singer for this year. The word "singer", put it between many quotation marks, because singer means a voice at the beginning and the performance in the second place, and afterwards comes the look and other things. And I am so happy of course," she said. Shams is the only Kuwaiti singer to have a contract with an American company. She says she aims to produce new material that goes beyond singing of love and emotions and moves more into addressing social and political issues such as AIDS and the George W. Bush administration. Shams turned professional in her singing in 2000 and has since become one of the biggest names in the Gulf. With a famous album called '7 times', a music video directed by Stephan Leonardo in the Voltaire area of Paris and an experimental twist to her work, it is not surprising that her efforts are being recognised at such an event. The Tunisian singer Suma gained the award for Best Arab Singer for her song 'Bahibak bas' (I love only you). Suma started her career as an anchor on Tunisian TV and moved from that onto children's television programmes. It was after that that she became involved in singing and took to performing in concert. With Egypt holding the reputation of the 'Hollywood of the Middle East', Suma moved to Cairo to boost her career, but found that the move meant starting her career from scratch. Suma once again began the journey of making a name for herself in a new country and has since earned fame in Egypt. One day of the event is dedicated to film songs, and in this category the Egyptian singer Nabila Ebeid won an award for singing the song 'Aboosak' (I'll kiss you) in the film 'Mafish Ghayr Kida (Nothing except for this). Ebeid said that this was not an area she was familiar with, and that this made her win very pleasing. "Of course, I'm very happy, what can I say, that when I do something and it receives this reaction, and especially when clips are not my field however, it was made in a different style and that helped me," said Ebeid. Guests of the festival were entertained by some of the award winners as well as others like Egyptian artist Magdi Husseini.

ITN Source | July 31, 2007

Tags:. .famous. .efforts. .voiced. .social. .ill