In her first collaboration with DJ Totti, Egyptian well known independent singer Dina El Wedidi released a new song Ya Badr. The music video was released on YouTube on 12 February. It is now available on Anghami, Deezer, SoundCloud, Spotify and Apple Music. Composed by El Wedidi and distributed by DJ Totti, the song's lyrics are written by the singer together with Yanbou Groups. Totti expressed his happiness on his Facebook page calling the song "very dear to my heart. The whole experience with all the people involved was the best thing that happened." It is in this collaboration that El Wedidi experiments with new musical territories while remaining faithful to her main creative calling that is rooted in Egypt's traditions. Capitalising on El Wedidi's authentic, powerful voice, the composition fuses mawwal (popular Arabic genre of vocal music) with the oriental accents and electronic effects. Not only a singer, songwriter, guitarist and duff player, but also a full-fledged artist, El Wedidi's relation with music began during the time she spent as an actress and a storyteller at El Warsha Theater Troupe, one of Egypt's very first independent theatre companies from which many renowned artists have emerged. It was at El Warsha, helped by tutor Maged Soliman, where she got particularly interested in Egyptian traditional music, a genre which was to characterise her upcoming compositions. As her exploration of music grew, El Wedidi left the theatre troupe, dedicating her time to composition and studying music, which included attending workshops with Grammy award-winning Egyptian musician Fathy Salama and Palestinian singer-songwriter Kamilya Jubran. Later on, she also appeared on stage with the latter. While proceeding with numerous collaborations with Egyptian and regional musicians, together with Massar Egbari, Tamer Shalaby, Tunisian singers Mahdi Rabeh, Anis Dridi and Mohamed Bin Jemaashe, she worked on Khalina Nehlam ('Let's Dream'), a song which became a big hit during the Arab Spring. A big educational step was when in 2012 El Wedidi was selected by Gilberto Gil and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative as a protégé, and for several months she was mentored by the Brazilian music icon. Their collaboration had a big influence on El Wedidi, and led her to feature Gil in one of the songs (titled The Night) in her debut album Tedawar w Tergaa (Turning Back) released in 2014. The following years proved very successful for El Wedidi as her popularity soared. Apart from frequent performances with her band, El Wedidi continued to join numerous creative initiatives, including the Nile Project, which gathered musicians from the Nile basin countries, organising musical exchanges, lectures and tours. During this period, El Wedidi released one of her best known songs, Ya Ganouby (Oh, My South), to the lyrics by Mido Zoheir (1974-2020), who also provided lyrics to many other songs performed by El Wedidi. Most recently, El Wedidi was chosen among Time Magazine's Next Generation Leaders (2019). El Wedidi is one of the Egyptian independent musicians whose rapid and significant creative growth has brought many interesting musical explorations along the way and to the audiences. She frequently performs on the most renowned local stages and tours across the region and internationally, while presenting a repertoire that is influenced by many genres, from those based on Egypt's traditional material to reggae, jazz and electronic. strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px;"For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArtsstrong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px;" and on Facebook at strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13px;"Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
