With TikTok captivating the young generation of social media users, one of its youngest devotees, Abdelrahman Ahmed Taha, has caught attention of the platform's fans. Only a few months after his first appearances on the channel, the young TikTok star attracted over 1.7 million subscribers. In fact, the TikTok account @romq44, which now mainly features Abdelrahman, was first launched by his mother, who also performed impersonations of actors from well-known plays. It was with the occasional guest appearances of Abdelrahman that the account began garnering large numbers of subscribers. Supported by his parents, the fourth-grade student, who helped by his mother pick scenes from well-known Egyptian plays, became among the most followed young talents on TikTok. His repertoire includes scenes from comedy plays such as Madraset el-Moshaghbeen (The School of Mischievous, 1973), Al Motazawegoon (The Married Couples, 1978) among other gems of Egyptian theatre. Abdelrahman imitates facial expressions of well-known actors such as Adel Emam, Said Saleh, Samir Ghanem, Sayed Zayan, among others. His growing social media popularity attracted media attention and last week Abderlahman was hosted by Mona Shazly on the Makom Mona Shazly television show. In the show, Abdelrahman explained that his interest with TikTok began a few months ago. "I told my mom that I'd like to try it, but at first my parents were a bit worried," he explains to El Shazly. It did not take long for the parents to embrace Abdelrahman's interest and soon the videos, which previously featured his mother, began shedding light on the son while showcasing his unique impersonation skills. Nevertheless, the boy's mother continues to appear in numerous videos, with additional appearances by his father. As the boy's father explains in El-Shazly's programme, Abdelrahman has always been interested in old Egyptian movies and theatre plays, imitating the actors in front of his parents and friends. Abdelrahman is among numerous young people trying their luck on the Chinese app TikTok, a platform that after its introduction to the international market in 2018 became especially popular during the lockdown caused by the pandemic. According to a report released by the datareportal.com, with an average of 65 million internet users in Egypt in 2019, 24 percent of them spent a significant amount of time on TikTok. This number significantly increased to 36.4 percent in year 2020. According to the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA), between March and April 2020, the weeks that witnessed the strongest lockdown restrictions, the app's usage almost doubled in Egypt, with TikTok being the most downloaded app in the country at that time. Over the past three years, TikTok proved extremely popular in Egypt, but it was starting March 2020 that many Egyptian users took to TikTok, either launching their own accounts or following their favourite accounts. Undeniably Abdelrahman is among the youngest presenters of homemade videos released on TikTok. His popularity is now being strengthened by television interest in the trend. Meanwhile, his fans keep multiplying with many videos receiving millions of likes, and the total likes on all his videos exceed 12.6 million. With HyperAuditor.com pointing to TikTok social influencers in Egypt having between 1 and 9 million subscribers, Abdelrahman's 1.7 million is definitely at the top of the game. The speed with which his popularity grows can soon place him among the top five TikTok influencers in the country. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture
