Egyptian singer Amr Diab was hit with a second heart attack last week, which cancelled his previous plans to hold a concert in Dubai. This incident marks the second time the singer is faced with heart problems, since he has moved to his new residence in Lebanon.
According to the London based daily, Al Quds Al Arabi, the cancellation had caused fans who had already bought tickets to the concert to go into a rage not knowing why Amr had suddenly cancelled the performance without giving any prior notice. The organizers of the event had to deal with an angry mob of fans who waited for hours hoping Amr would show up and ended up compensating everyone by returning their ticket money.
The singer has refrained from giving out any details regarding his health condition and is following doctor’s orders and avoiding any extensive exercise or extra activity. Doctors advised the singer to stay at home for some time and give his body time to relax. The singer had expressed his fear of having to quit his career due to his heart condition, but doctors assured him that there is no need of resigning as long as he takes time off to rest and cut down on all tiring activities.
Recently, Amr had encountered severe pain in his chest from over working himself in physical exercises in Beirut. The singer had began to workout intensively after talks of him reaching the age of 40 and no longer being the young and energetic man he always was. Amr wanted to prove that he still enjoys a very healthy lifestyle and is in good shape regardless of his age, and so began working out until he could no longer stand up and began to feel severe pain in his chest. Despite going through such an ordeal, the singer kept to his promise and held a spectacular two performances at the Jordanian annual summer festival Jarash and a third in Egypt, which were brought live on the music production company Rotana’s music channel.
On a different note, the shift of Diab from the Alam El Phan Music Production Company to Rotana was not as smooth as planned, but rather caused a war to break out pulling Amr in the middle. Muhsin Jaber, owner of Alam El Phan has stressed that Amr’s move is not as simple as the singer thinks and still has many legal issues pending that must be resolved before the new company takes over his work.
For the past nine years, Muhsin has been Amr’s right arms, in terms of defending him, helping him make the right decisions in his career path, and most important making him the star he is today. But after Amr’s unexpected move to Rotana, after extensive negotiations that lasted for months, Muhsin has transformed into Amr’s worst enemy and is placing the best interest of his company in front of everything else, disregarding the fact that Amr was the reason behind the company’s success and brought it the most profit.
Muhsin had at first taken the news of Amr’s move calmly as if no harm was done, but later on stressed that the contract between his company and Amr is very clear and according to it the singer can not abort the contract until he fulfils all its conditions which say that the singer must submit two more albums before the end of his terms with the company which is on December 31, 2003. If Amr does not abide by the contract, Muhsin has every right legally to freeze any new work by Amr in turn forbidding the new company from producing anything by the singer.
Contradicting what many thought that Muhsin will be drawn into negotiating a settlement price with Amr and peacefully dropping the issue, Muhsin has revealed that he will not agree to any deal and will in fact freeze all of Amr’s work until he is provided with two more albums by the singer. The matter has also Rotana on the line after paying the singer 5 million US dollars to sign a contract, and since literally the singer needs at least two years to produce two albums a matter that can not keep Rotana quiet.
Muhsin stressed that he is not the one who put Amr in this situation, but the singer did it to himself and needs to pay the consequences for his actions. On the other hand, Amr feels that what he has done is 100 percent legal and he does not owe Muhsin anything after the contract ends.
The issue remains unsolved between the two men and will eventually be resolved in court. The once good friend of Amr has now turned against him in ways like revealing facts about the singer that show the weaker side of him. Muhsin has announced that the singer as a person is not capable of achieving the success he has reached, but it was the company that worked on creating him a star around the world.
Amr's latest album "Alim Albi Al Gharam" features twelve songs, which were written by a number of prominent poets. The new album features Amr in a new look and music styles. He combined Tango, Jazz, Techno, and eastern genres all in one. “Alim Albi Al Gharam” is shot in London. –Albawaba.com
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
