Cairokee Perform in Mashrou’ Kheir’s Annual Charity Festival
By Deena Sabry
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AUC’s community service club Mashrou’ Kheir hosted rapper Zap Tharwat and contemporary music band Cairokee on May 4, with all profits from the show going toward supplying water to homes in Upper Egypt.
Their initiative is in collaboration with Misr El Kheir Foundation, a non-profit institution that works toward development.
“The whole idea behind our event is to send a message that doing good can be fun. We want to engage Egyptian youth in community development in ways that are easy for them, interactive and fun,” Mashrou’ Kheir President Nour Khalil told The Caravan.
The concerts were part of the annual Kheir Festival designed to engage the community in charity work.
Concert-goers entering campus were greeted by a sticky- note filled board and a diverse collection of drawings created by sick and needy children.
Members of the club asked the audience to write down their wishes, which ranged from being happy to traveling the world.
“Some of the children’s wishes that we granted were posted. The space available was for attendees to write down their wishes so they
can see what they wish for and what children in need wish for. It’s a way of making people realize that something they do every day may be a sick child’s wish,” said Khalil.
While there were other forms of entertainment, like an Anghami booth where attendees could perform karaoke, and all sorts of snacks available, the highlights of the festival were the two performers that lit up the stage once the sun set.
Tharwat opened the show by performing a number of his songs from his latest album, Al Madina (The City), which marked his first show since its release in April.
Even though audience members were not singing along to every lyric, Tharwat was able to capture their attention, with the crowd clearly following every word he sang.
His lyrics are known to be powerful, given the fact that he usually raps about prevailing social problems, which clearly kept the crowd on edge until they erupted in cheers at the chorus of every song.
After performing for 30 minutes, he stepped off the stage as the crowd began calling for Cairokee.
“Cairokee! Cairokee! Cairokee!” everyone chanted, with some screaming out the titles of their favorite songs.
Once on stage, the band kickstarted their performance with the title track from their 2017 album No’ta Beida (White Dot).
After performing some of their older songs, Amir Eid, the band’s lead vocalist, asked the crowd if they know the words of the upcoming song as he began strumming on his guitar the opening notes of Ana Mesh Menhom (I Am Not One of Them), which marked the beginning of a revolutionary medley that Tharwat joined them on stage for.
Up next was Ethbat Makanak (Stay in Your Place), another 2011 song about resistance. It was one of the few songs where everyone in the crowd was singing along at the top of their lungs to every word that flowed out from the duo.
Other than a bass that was at times too loud, it was pretty clear the band shied away from performing their new politically charged songs.
“I really enjoyed [the festival] but I wish they played more of their famous songs, especially the controversial Dinosaur,” said Reim Maklad, an undeclared freshman.
However, for a band whose latest album was banned from the market for being too political, they sure did not stir away from politics altogether.
While they did not perform any of their overtly controversial songs, specifically from the banned album, they seemed pretty adamant on taking the crowd seven years back in time, when a lot more hope was prevalent among the country’s youth.
Perhaps one of the show’s striking moments was when Eid shrugged and looked down as he sang about talk show hosts telling viewers what happened in 2011 was not a revolution. The crowd, in return, erupted in loud cheers and applause.
“It’s like they’re trying to revive the revolution,” an attendee could be heard saying halfway into the show.
Some songs later, the show took an intimate turn when the band’s bass guitarist Adam el-Alfy took Eid’s place centre stage and sang Ma A’ad Sagheran (He Is No Longer Young).
The song’s lyrics are from Sharayin Tajih (Coronary Arteries), a poem written by prominent Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik. The band recorded the song as a tribute to the late author who passed away in April.
