#funkypharaoh

On the 21st of June 1929, The middle East's most heartfelt, emotional and romantic singer to ever touch the mic was born. In his short life of 47 years Halim presented the world with what I can personally call the richest and the truest collection of romantic songs of all time!  Today would've marked his 84th birthday if he was still with us. Although time has passed, but let me tell you, You are still number ONE Halim and no one will ever take your place! The above is NOT A DJ mix. But instead it's a beautiful medley of his most romantic songs ever.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we've enjoyed make it! Happy birthday Halim..

Special message from DJ Funky Pharaoh:

In my experience of mixing, remixing and mashing up in the last few years I can genuinely say that preparing mixes and .mashups with Dancy vibes in mind are a lot easier than those with a slow, romantic and deep vibe. When it comes to an area as dangerous as Abdel Halim Hafez, this task becomes almost impossible! 

Most of our loyal fans and friends who have been following Funky Pharaoh Music from day ONE, remember that our official launch came in the style of a random, London-based street party where we gathered in the middle of the constantly busy Edgware road, randomly DJ'd the best of our [Electro.Arabian.House] mixes for one hour and then disappeared. The first street party we did was so popular and caused such a stir that you all kindly asked us to come back and we did a few weeks later. These two events will always remain in our memories and the memories of many of you who attended and those who were not able to make it.

A couple of years on and guess what??? We are officially back on the street but this time in a bigger, louder, thumpier and more organised manner!

London's popular Shubbak Festival is officially set to make a return this year to get our beloved capital buzzing with various artistic and musical activities to raise awareness of the beautiful Middle Eastern culture.

The launch weekend of the festival is now going to be in the form of a TWO-DAY street banonza in Lyic Square, Hammersmith, dubbed "Hafla On The Square" (Hafla: Party in Arabic), in association with our amazing friends at Arts Canteen in London.

As a lead act on the music stage that weekend, DJ Funky Pharaoh and the FP family will be spinning four mini sets.

Saturday 22nd.June.2013: an introduction to[Electro.Arabian.House]

 Come and watch Funky does one of his magical mashup sets where he will be mixing and remixing (live on stage) the best of modern and classic Arabic hits with the best of the Electro and Urban world. Check out how The melodies of Arabia will be presented to you in a way that you have never heard them before and get to know why our fans from Brazil to the USA to Japan have fallen in love with his vision of Arabic music and looked beyond the language barriers.

Performance Times  - 1:15pm and 3:15pm

Sunday 23rd.June.2013 : A Journey Through the Rhythms of Arabia

Come and enjoy a more traditional set from DJ Funky Pharaoh where over the course of two 30 minute sets, he will be taking you on a wild journey through the sounds and rhythms of Arabia. Enjoy a collection of Egyptian, Khaleeji, Lebanese and Rai hits mixed in together to give you an insight of the rich musical heritage found in the Arab land with its unique regions.

Performance Times  - 1:15pm and 3:15pm

----------------------------------------------------------------

All the details are on the flyer pictured above!

I've always been a fan of all forms of performance art that is a little unique.

I LOVE it when a band or an artist or a group of some sort give me something unexpected....different....something that stands out but in a good way!

Today I'm gonna present you with a very very special group out of our beloved country of Egypt and this is a group called "THE PERCUSSION SHOW".

The Percussion Show are a number of drummers / percussionist who present their music by fusing a whole lot of different sounds and inspirations from Afro-beats to flamenco to Latin and a little more!

The reason I wanted to spotlight them today is because they are the epitome of the rule that states:

"A true musician and band player will always love the sound of the whole band more than the sound of his individual drum"

Well done to you guys! and let us hear more!!!

Majority of Arabic music fans (whether they enjoy his music or not) are always excited to check out Tamer Hosny's albums! Maybe because they like his music, maybe because they just want to criticize the guy, maybe because they disagree with his social or political views and wish to use his music as a portal to take shots at him, or maybe because they are Arabic music fans and wish to give him a fair chance!

No matter which of these groups you belong to, you need to admit that you WILL sit down and you WILL give it at least ONE listen!

On the other side, 2011/2012 have not been the smoothest of rides for the star! After the release of his last album "Elli Gai Ahla" which I personally thought was a very good record, he seems to make a string of wrong choices, from his disappearance on a North African tour which seemed too long to the terrible collaboration with Shaggy to Snoop's collaboration which never even saw the light of day.. things were not at their best! (and that's a polite way of putting it)

However, after alllll the trouble that has occurred  it seemed that Tamer is back in Egypt, back with the record company that made him and made his best hits in his golden era (FreeMusic Egypt and Mr. Nasr Mahroos) and from the samples and exclusive tracks I got sent by FreeMusic last night, it seems that he is back as focused as we always wanted him to be!

Now, it has been confirmed that Tamer plans to release his next studio album, " Bahibak Enta " on Valentine's day! 

With a big list of lyricists, composers and producers can the dynamic duo of Tamer Hosny and Nasr Mahroos bring back some much needed glory for the him???

Only time can tell...

It seems literally like yesterday that I was gearing up excitedly about printing and dropping our first Mix Compilation "The Pharaohmatik Theory" . That PROMO-ONLY CD flew out before we could teach you how to pronounce the tongue twisting title.... and it really made me smile when I saw people wanting it, emailing me about it, fighting over it, blasting it our of their cars in London and other cities and even going to the extreme of burning their own and printing their own covers lol (Bilal in Sharm El Sheikh I see you :p ) !

A year later, a lot more mixes, more mash ups and more adventures... now we are ready to send off for part TWO :D

The Pharaohmatik Theory 2 has just gone off to the duplication factory people!!1

It contains FIVE of our favorite mixes from last year all mixed in together into one bass blasting compilation. These are:

1. MMXIII

2. Tiesto Vs Tamer

3. Día Del Faraón

4. Guetta Vs Diab

5. Sinai Dreams

The announcement of Hamaki's brand new album in the last week of Ramadan has sent waves of happiness and excitement across the whole world! His fans were super happy! and even the delay of the album slightly did not faze them!

But while we all await the release of this amazing record, we decided to gift our fans with a beautiful present on the first day of Eid!

A video that we prepared to celebrate Hamaki's career...

10 songs over the course of five minutes remixing the best of Hamaki's music into various genres of Electro music... From House to Tribal House to ELectro, Dubstep, Moombahcore and more...

The name of the video -

Mission Impossible : HAMAKI Vs EDM

The feedback for the video was amazing to the level that it was featured on Hamaki's official site! Click HERE to see the article :D

Now and due to popular demand, we would gladly like to announce that we will also be release the mix as audio through our soundcloud site tomorrow :D

Stay with us as we officially drop it on the site :D meanwhile... enjoy the video here :D

First of all, I would like to wish each and every single one of you today a very Happy Eid! and what a present I have for you today :D

A few days ago, we announced that we will be releasing a megamix of the SUPER STAR Mohamed Hamaki to celebrate his musical career in preparation of the release of his new album! and now this music video has finally arrived!

Man, Music is not just about putting records out, playing concerts and selling merchandise in the aim of making money... or even to get appreciation from your fans and peers...sometimes, the most beautiful moments are when you sing or play music JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO!

I could easily say that some of my most beautiful and musical moments is sitting down with a guitar on the sides of the nile or in Alex singing with friends and being joined by random people who feel happy and excited to hear a song they like from a voice they do or do not know.

This video deserves a blog because it felt like that!

Three artists... from completely different musical backgrounds:

- Ramy Gamal : Ground breaking composer and recent singer, mainly pop!

- Amal Maher : Raised on the school of Om Kolthoum and the most classical of the lot.

- Zein El Omor : Amazing Lebanese voice that hardly (if EVER) sang in Egyptian!

They all got together on a TV show that aired on Dubai TV recently and performed, the King Abdel Halim Hafez's 70's hit, " Maood " .

The performance is sooooo beautiful, it seems that they were completely oblivious of everything in the world apart from their own voices and the song....

ONE thing to mention here! The band is absolutely amazing!!! They are indeed monstrously tight!