Hamza Namira

Namira started to develop an interest in music when he was 17 years old, when he set about learning the guitar, keyboard, and ‘oud. He also vested interests in several musical styles: Middle Eastern, Egyptian traditional and folk music, light rock, jazz, and Latin music. From 1999 until 2004, Namira played in a band headed by the Alexandrian artist Nabil Bakly. Although a relatively unknown musician, Namira later said that Bakly was his main musical influence. He then went on to form his own group. Namira composed his first songs and managed to get a few like-minded friends together to establish the band "Nomaira".[5] In the meantime, he studied commerce at the Alexandria University and graduated in 2003.[7]

In light of Namira's debut album, which had a main fan base of college students,[5] one commentator described him as the "new Sayed Darwish", a cover of whose song, Shedd El Hizam, was released in the album.[8]

Namira's second album, Insan [Human] was released in July 2011.[9] This coincided with the Arab spring, which he declared was a main factor in his popularity. According to him, he wants to express the real issues of his generation that mainstream works don't cover due to concerns of musical market needs and pressure from production companies.[10]

When British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Egypt on 21 February 2011 (only ten days after President Hosni Mubarak left office), Namira was one of a select group of people invited to meet with him and to participate in a one-hour discussion about the future of Egypt.[6]

Namira's fixation on sociopolitical issues continued along the timeline of the Egyptian part of the Arab Spring. In January 2014, he released a single, Wa Ollak Eh, in which he emphasized on rejecting violence, hatred, and the general polarized environment following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état and Rabia massacre.[11]

In 2016, Namira launched his own weekly TV series Remix (Arabic: ريمكس‎) on the pan-Arab TV channel Al Araby.[12] As of 24 December 2020, 3 seasons of the show were released, with a total number of 34 episodes. Along the series, Namira blended different music genres with local lyrics, including flamenco, electro, celtic, and others. Arabic lyrics were adopted from the Maghreb, the levant, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, while non-Arab included Amazigh, Kurdish, and Armenian.

With a running time of around 20-30 minutes, each episode would examine the historical origin and evolution of a work of folklore or pop culture in an Arab region, or sometimes in even other neighboring regions, like Armenia and Kurdistan.[12] In exploration of the musical piece, Namira would interview original artists (if still alive), their family members, local enthusiasts, or cultural officials. For example, he met with Hamdi Benani for an Algerian cover, and with the grandparent of Sayed Darwish for a remake of his Yā Wild ʿammy (Arabic: يا ولد عمي‎, lit. 'O, cousin').[13] At the end of each episode, Hamza would publicly perform a remix of the work, usually outside its place of origin or popularity. A number of songs were performed in London, which is both the headquarter of Al Araby and Hamza's place of residence.[12] Works of Remix were mostly collaborative, featuring Lowkey, Babylone, Isam Bachiri, Hamid Al Shaeri, among others.