Photography by Ahmed Kadry

Tell us more about yourself.

I’m A Freelance Writer/Copywriter and recently became a song writer. I’m a proud working mother; my absolute passion is music with all its forms and genres. I love photography and travelling and I’m a former basketball player and a very big fan of the sport. They call me a day dreamer because I kind of live in my own fictional world, I have a pretty wide imagination and I’m forever a child at heart which is kind of what keeps me sane.

How do you manage to balance between your work and family?

To be honest, it is very challenging, I do my best every day to balance between both, and without my family’s support and encouragement I wouldn’t have managed to pull it off.  When I spend too much time at work, I try to make it up as much as I could on my off days.

Photographed By Mostafa Abdel Aty

 Tell us more about the songwriting industry; is it an easy or a hard field?

I can’t really tell, so far it has been okay based on what I’ve experienced, of course the process isn’t always very smooth but so far it is tolerable.

What kind of struggles and challenges did you have to face while building your career?

Well, the main thing is proving yourself and being up for the job. Building a good reputation and have your work stand out isn’t easy, you have to have the heart and dedication for it

 Financially speaking, is writing songs a fruitful career?

It is self-fulfilling more than financially rewarding.  In my case, I do it for the passion and for the love of music and this how I see it fruitful.

How did you take the shifting career step of becoming a songwriter?

It wasn’t entirely a career shift for me as I’m originally a writer so it was a very natural “Career Improvement”.

Apart from writing, you are the executive producer of the music composer Hisham Kharma’s Live Shows? Tell us more about that..

I was handed an amazing opportunity by Hisham Kharma when he offered me this job, as I previously told you music is my main and ultimate passion, so putting a show together for a very talented musician Like Kharma was a chance of a lifetime. The preparations,  auditions, rehearsals, the excitement, all of it is so self-rewarding and worth all the effort, especially when you see the final outcome .  Working in anything related to music is what I love and will always love to do.

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Photography by Ahmed Kadry

What kind of advices you’d like to give to people who love writing songs?

Write whatever thoughts that comes to your head, whatever you feel in your heart, always document it as soon as it hits you, you never know what might come out of it later. I get an unstoppable flow of lines and ideas before I sleep, I take a pen and write everything down I recommend they all do the same. Your mind gets so clear before you fall asleep and this is when all the good stuff comes up

 What is your favorite part of the writing songs process?

The moment an inspiration hits me, I get this very weird flow of emotions that comes out in a form of words and lines. It is so raw and genuine, comes straight out of your heart without over thinking or analyzing it.

Tell us about سهلة و بسيطة and what inspired it?

Sahla we Bassita is a very special song for me, the whole experience was life changing for me. The way this song came to life was magical and superfast. Part of the perks of working with a talented music composer like Kharma ,  is that you get to listen to fresh new tunes right out of the oven JHe came up with a brilliantly cheerful and happy melody  and asked me to write some lyrics for it as a trial, I was very intimidate at first as I’m used to writing  English lyrics but decided to give it a try, he took a chance on me and discovered my potential as a song writer and I’m very grateful for that.  We wanted Sahla we bassita’s to be a feel good song with a goal to cheer people up and give them hope. We agreed on the gratitude topic as it is the real key to happiness. Be grateful to be happy in your life, easy and simple J.

Sahla we Bassita Ahl Masr’s شوف بقلبك”, the talk of the town, tell us about this experience?

Ahl Masr is a dream come true, being able to write a song for a cause that will help in saving so many lives is so overwhelming and a true blessing.  I went to meet with Heba el Sweedy the founder of Ahl Masr to interview her for my freelance work, and as soon as I sat with her and her very dedicated team I got so emotionally involved in the cause and wanted to help in any way I can. And because of the amount of info I learnt about burn victims that day and how big and serious this cause, the song lyrics came to me few hours later, and then it all evolved from there, till it became the first cheerful charity song you’ve all seen the past few days  el hamdolelah.

 You were part of the creative team working on it, why did you choose this colorful approach and face paint?

We all agreed since we started working on this project that we want to change the perspective of charity ads in Egypt and how they address their audience, we wanted to stay away from the heartbreaking and depressing direction most of NGOs use to raise donations. We can call for action and get people to support a cause through a happy colorful ad without making them feel sad or turned off. The face paint symbolizes the hidden beauty of burn victims’ souls, that if we look at them with our hearts, look pass their scars, we will be able to see their inner colorful beauty.

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Photography by Ahmed Kadry

On a separate note, it is worth mentioning that all the people who helped in bringing this project to life did it absolutely for free, from production, directing, recording to all celebrities’ guest appearances, everyone one volunteered to support Ahl Masr Burn Hospital and that’s the main reason it reached people’s hearts because it is made from the heart.