sang some favourite tunes at the Sawi Culture Wheel last week, Osama Kamal reports The 25 January Revolution brought to the fore a whole new generation of musicians, but only one singer can claim to have sung for the revolution before it took place. , who held a concert at the Sawi Culture Wheel on 9 May, has been in the frontline of revolutionary singers since the 1970s when she teamed up with the legendary duo of Ahmed Fouad Negm and Sheikh Imam. Balbaa had intended to sing some of her new songs at her recent concert, but she forgot to bring a laptop that contained the musical scores for the latest numbers so she had to rely on her old repertoire. So back it was to the Negm-Imam songs, and the audience loved it. In one song after another, Balbaa brought back memories of the student movement with the lyrics everyone knows by heart: "The Students Are Back, Am Hamza", "Masr Ya Bahia", "Cow of Haha" and "Good Morning Roses", all Negm's lyrics -- plus the unforgettable "Lovers in the Citadel Prison" by Zein El-Abidin Fouad, and "The Ploughman" by Fouad Qaoud. Balbaa still recalls swhen she first met the Negm-Imam duo. "Our first encounter was in Alexandria University in 1976. This was when I met Sheikh Imam (1918 �ê" 1995) and Ahmad Fouad Negm (b. 1929) for the first time. After meeting them, I was drawn irrevocably into their incredible art and humanism. It's been more than 30 years, but the memory of our first encounter remains fresh in my mind," she says Egypt may have changed on the surface, but the problem of social justice is just as acute now as it was when Balbaa was still a student. Balbaa addresses the ever-present need for change in her art. "I approach art as a message of humanism, a message that has content and attitude. Through art, we rediscover ourselves and the reality that surrounds us, and we seek to change it." Balbaa was singing by the time she was three years old, and, coming from a well-heeled family who appreciated art, she received all the encouragement she needed. Focusing on a musical career was no problem. "I come from a well-educated family which appreciates fine art. One of my uncles was the private doctor to the great singer Abdel-Halim Hafez, and my mother was a lover of art and culture." Since meeting Negm and Imam in 1976, Balbaa accompanied them at all their concerts in Cairo and Alexandria. It was a relationship that landed her in prison, and led to love. "Because of my relationship with Imam and Negm, I was arrested more than once. I was arrested in 1979 during a concert in Kamshish, Menoufia. I was arrested again in 1979 because of my opposition to the Camp David Accords. I was arrested yet again in 1981 and held for 15 days, this time for no apparent reason." Balbaa married Negm in 1976; their marriage ended in divorce six years later. In 1982, Balbaa started singing with the Arab Music Band of Abdel-Halim Noweira, and two years later she joined the "Youth Melodies" band of Manar Abu Heif. In the 1980s she appeared in a number of stage plays, including A Minister in Love, Monkey World, and Semiramis. She was also in several plays for children including Birds of Paradise, Spring Guard and Wonder Well. In 1989, Balbaa played a major role in the immensely popular Ramadan television show Grandpa Abdou with Abdel-Moneim Madoubli. Ironically, it was Susanne Mubarak who recommended her for the Ramadan show, having seen her sing in children's programmes. But as soon as Balbaa made her political ideas known to her superiors, television gigs stopped coming her way. Having ruined her chances with national television, Balbaa continued to sing revolutionary songs across the country, often on invitation from leftist groups. "I visited every governorate in Egypt, singing the Negm-Imam songs as well as my own repertoire. I haven't once turned down an invitation from nationalist or political groups in any governorate, especially invitations from the [left-leaning] Tagammu Party." Balbaa also sang regularly at the annual Cairo Book Fair when Samir Sarhan was the organiser. Sarhan was a true liberal, she says, who allowed a whole gamut of political opinions to thrive in book events. To this day, Balbaa believes that Sheikh Imam did not receive the recognition he should have had. "Sheikh Imam is one of the greats of Egyptian music, but he didn't receive the appreciation and recognition he deserved. He was persecuted through his life, and marginalised for acting as the voice of the poor." Without Sheikh Imam's training, Balbaa might have had trouble launching her singing career. "I learnt the various musical keys from Sheikh Imam, and he showed me the points of strength in my voice and taught me how to select the songs that suit the nature of my voice," she says. Aside from the Negm-Imam repertoire, Balbaa has her own songs. She has a complete album, Tour of Delusions, with lyrics by Sayyed Hegab and music by Ali Saad. One of the songs on this CD is "The Hours", which featured in Yousef Chahine's Return of the Prodigal Son.
