Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram will be holding a live concert in Cairo at the end of the week for a wage of twelve thousand US dollars. Ticket prices ranged from 250-50 Egyptian pounds a piece and were sold out at the moment the concert was announced.
According to different news sources, Nancy's concert ticket prices have broken record high beating, exceeding tickets sold to well-known singers like Amr Diab and Majida Al Roumy.
Earlier this week, Egyptian TV officials cancelled all previously scheduled celebrations that were to take place for the Sham El Nasim spring celebrations after an order from Egypt's Minister of Information, Safawat Al Shareef. The order came to show support for the people of Iraq and Palestine, who are living through extremely difficult times.
Nancy, Ragheb Alama, Shereen Wajdi, and many others were to hold live concerts during the spring festival and which were to be aired on all local and satellite Egyptian channels. Organizers of the events that were to take place and producers of the TV channels all agreed that the decision by the minister was a wise one and its understandable that holding such celebrations when the conditions in the region are very critical is uncalled for.
Out of the singers most disappointed with the cancellation was 18-year-old Ajram, who had previously agreed on holding a concert for free during the festival in an attempt to make herself more widely-known in front of the Egyptian large population. Nancy had stressed that she will use this opportunity to present herself not only in front of the Egyptian audience but also to audiences everywhere through the live broadcast.
Nancy had recently celebrated the hundredth day of her singing career. She had contracted with a production company to release a new album, which she hopes will add tremendously to her career.
Ajram revealed that her dream will come true and is confident that her popularity will be international and people in the East and West will know who she is. She began her quest to stardom at the age of twelve, but was not very lucky the past years mostly due to the incapability of her previous production company EMI and poet Issam Zughaib who have adopted her talent for a long period of time.
Before the US war on Iraq, Nancy was to perform alongside international Lebanese-Colombian pop/rock singer Shakira Mebarak in Cairo this May and proceed with her to Lebanon, but the current conditions had forced the Columbian singer to cancel all prior arrangements. Nancy had said that if this comes true, it would mark the foundation of her international stardom and place her on a pedestal alongside other international singers, but to her dismay, she will have to wait a bit longer.
Nancy added that Jiji Lamara, who was the previous agent/manager for Lebanese singer Elaine Khalaf, is the only person who is capable of making her dream a reality and bring her the stardom she longs for by discovering her true talent. She also noted that Jiji had warned her not to fall in the trap of reaching the top too fast or becoming too conceited, for that would create a number of complications for her and may backfire and drop her to the ground.
Nancy's description of reaching the top is basically taken one step at a time patiently and carefully. She expressed that she always dreamed of standing on stage and performing to a large crowd and through God's will she achieved that dream and is striving to always improve.
Ajram had stressed that there was never a dispute between her and poet Zughaib, who was the main reason behind her popularity. Nancy stated that she feels its time to move on to a different poet in order to have more variety and different styles.
Essam had refused to diverse the songs for Nancy and insisted that she sings in the Lebanese accent only and refrain from singing in other styles. Nancy eagerness to introduce something new to her audience led her to a new poet saying that regardless of the breakup in business, she and Essam remain very close friends and will stay that way. –Albawaba.com
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
