Amr Diab’s song Tamally Maak has started trending again after Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim used it as the soundtrack for photos on his official Instagram account. The images showed Anwar receiving Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Friday, at the start of Sisi’s visit to Malaysia. The choice put a track first released in 2000 back in front of a wide audience.
Tamally Maak, which translates as Always With You, was the first song Diab recorded for his 2000 album. It was composed by Sherif Tag, with lyrics by the late poet Ahmed Ali Moussa, whose work on the track marked his debut as a songwriter. Moussa was 18 when he posted his lyrics to Diab’s home, along with his name and phone number. Diab was drawn to the Egyptian character and rhythm of the word tamally, meaning always or constantly.
The album helped popularise a style of Egyptian pop that blends Eastern melodies with Western arrangements. Its cover credits the artistic vision to Diab and Tarek Madkour, and its writers and composers included Amir Teima, Rabie al-Sioufi, Ayman Bahgat Kamar, Mohamed Refaei, Bahaa al-Din Mohamed, Amr Mostafa, Walid Saad and Essam Karika, many of whom went on to become major names in Egyptian music. The title track’s arrangement mixes Latin pop and flamenco, with guitars, electronic rhythms and live instruments, and its opening bars remain among the most recognisable in Arab pop.
The song has also travelled widely beyond the Arab world. Bulgarian singer Ivana released a Bulgarian version in 2002, Amir Jameel recorded a Hindi version in 2004 and Erkan Hakan a Turkish version in 2006. Spanish singer Antonio Carmona released his take in 2007, and there have been further covers in Albanian by Gazi, in Greek by Lefteris Pantazis and in Armenian by Olga. The spread of covers across Europe and Asia shows how far the tune has travelled from its Cairo origins.
Anwar’s post shows how far Diab’s catalogue reaches outside Egypt, more than a quarter of a century after the album came out. The song’s renewed reach also shows how a single social media post from a head of government can revive interest in an older hit. The clip from Kuala Lumpur has given one of his best-known songs a fresh audience among listeners who were not born when it first appeared.
