Photo Credit: Shakah1999
Ramy Essam is an Egyptian rock musician who first rose to prominence in 2011 while performing in Tahrir Square during the uprising that took place that year. One of his tunes “Irhal” is considered a powerful anthem of the revolution and it was chanted during the protests.
Egypt’s authoritarian regime banned his music and in 2014 he had to flee to Sweden to escape persecution. But he continued to write and record powerful protest songs to shed light on the injustices taking place in his native country.
On February 26th, 2018, Essam released a new single and video called “Balaha”. The video of the Arabic sung tune includes lyrics subtitled into English. The song is a scathing indictment of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his oppressive regime.
The lyrics were primarily written by Egyptian poet Galal El-Behairy (with additional lyrics by Essam). On March 3, 2018, El-Behairy was arrested, tortured and charged for being a member of a terrorist organisation, spreading fake news, abuse of social networking, blasphemy, contempt of religion and disrespecting the military. Essam was issued an arrest warrant under identical charges.
On June 27, 2018, the military court postpone El-Behairy verdict until July 28, 2018. This was the third delay and in Egypt postponements are often used to unjustly jail prisoners indefinitely.
On his website, Ramy Essam posted the following about the song and charges:
“It is a song. We have been dreaming of a better Egypt for seven years. Even in the darkest of times, we haven’t lost hope. We have expressed ourselves peacefully through art, using music as a tool against violence, oppression and corruption. With this song we wanted to remind everyone of the freedom we once had, granted by the revolution. We wanted to remind everyone of the right to speak, the right to criticize, and the right to dream of change. We wanted to start a dialogue about where Egypt is now and where it could be. Our art is not created to make people fight. It is music, it is how we feel. It is a song.”