The exclusive rights to the soundtrack of Saturday's Pharaohs Golden Parade have been acquired by Lebanon-born music streaming platform Anghami.
The songs and musical compositions were certainly some of the parade’s main highlights, garnering a great deal of praise from spectators, both in Egypt and abroad.
An original composition by Hesham Nazih was performed by Egypt’s United Philharmonic Orchestra, which included 120 veteran musicians and 100 singers, conducted by Nader Abassi.
Following the parade, social media erupted with commentary about some of the night's most compelling performers, including percussionist Radwa El Beheiry.
While there were many singers involved, three leading ladies – Riham Abdelhakim, Amira Selim and Nesma Mahgoub – have been singled out for their powerful vocal stylings, but also for their fashion, which took on an Ancient Egyptian theme for the occasion.
One of Egypt's most celebrated singers, Mohamed Mounir, also dropped a new single called Ana Masr (I Am Egypt), which he was commissioned to perform specially for the parade.
Mounir's popularity is ubiquitous in Egypt as he enjoys widespread acclaim across the country's varied socioeconomic classes.
The Egyptian government leaned heavily on star power to give the parade more gravitas, with many of Mena’s hottest celebrities making appearances throughout the night.
“What many people don’t know is that the main song of the night was sung in Ancient Egyptian,” says Arto Belekdanian, an Egyptologist at the Tourism Ministry’s science division. "We put a great deal of work into making sure the lyrics and our translations of them were all correct."
Spectator Farah Magdy, an interior designer, said this attention to detail on the lyrics made everything much more "authentic". "I mean, the singers were singing in Ancient Egyptian, I had never seen that before and I was impressed."
It wasn't only the lyrics that were authentic, as the song was also reportedly composed on instruments that would have been around in ancient Egypt. This includes the sistrum, rattles, tambourines, bells and cymbals, as well as stringed instruments such as lyres, harps and the lute.
The parade, which saw 22 royal mummies paraded through Cairo, was one of the most talked-about events across the world earlier this week and its success has inspired the Egyptian government to host similar ceremonies in the future to promote the country’s tourism sector, which took a major hit because of Covid-19 travel bans.
This includes a parade for boy-king Tutankhamun, as it moves from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir to the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.
It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.
The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
The Limehouse Golem
Director: Juan Carlos Medina
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy, Douglas Booth
Three stars
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Duterte Harry: Fire and Fury in the Philippines
Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications
