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The
Queen Of Egyptian Nightclubs
A woman who had full control and monopoly on the nightclub life
of entertainment in Cairo. Her orchestra, musicians, singers and
dancers, where the leaders in the field and when we take a closer
look, we will find that almost all of them, we find that they
were and still are our measuring scale of excellence and classic
consideration.
A Lebanese girl at the age ripe age of 17 years old, decided to
move to Cairo in pursuit of an artistic career as her love for
singing and dancing were stronger than any power of persuasion
that was stubbornly argued by her family.
Badeia Masabny (pronounced Badee-a Masubni) moved to Cairo and
started working in some small nightclubs where the entertainment
nightlife was beginning to flourish and prosper, however was mainly
controlled by western foreigners, Lebanese, Syrians, English,
French, Greeks, Turks, German, American etc… even the dancers
and singer, dancers and comedians were none Egyptian. However,
Badeia was met with a lot of support and encouragement from her
fellow Lebanese and Syrian people in the business to whom she
held many nights of entertainment, danced and sang in their weddings
and sang the "Meijana and Etaba" (Lebanese and Syrian specialised
styles of Laments) which brought back the nostalgic memories of
home and made them feel closer to their mother countries.
A young Lebanese actor by the name of Nageeb Elias El Rihany (who
was sponsored by the famous actor and director Aziz Eid Fa' and
whom sent him to Paris to study film production and cinematography)
attended one of these parties and weddings in which Badeia sang
and danced. Nageeb was introduced into the Egyptian theatre world
by Aziz Fa' in one of his plays, in a comedy role, which made
him very successful and created a name and a face that went with
it. However Nageeb was not too keen on comedy and tried his hand
in tragedy but failed in that to the point of loosing all work
offers and became broke and very poor.
Nageeb was later met with an unknown sponsor who believed in him
as a comedian and financed his comedy company and then so did
the young actor Nageeb realised that this is how the people see
him and he started to believe in his comedian abilities and he
wrote a play about a small cotton farmer from the very small village
of Kafr El Ballas by the name of Kesh-
Kesh Beih (in the Turkish style of the strata of social order
was organised as follows: Effendi = Mr., Beih= Sir, Pasha = Prince)
who came to Cairo to sell his crop, he does and goes to one of
the night clubs to celebrate his big sale of the year. Kesh-Kesh
Beih gets very used to the nightlife, living it up amongst all
the dancers and singers and spends all his money. He returns home,
plants another season and sells it the next year and returns to
Cairo to repeat the whole story all over again. In this play,
Nageeb found it very easy to find his heroin to share the leading
role in his successful play as he remembered the beautiful Lebanese
dancer whom he met in one of the Lebanese wedding parties.
The audience loved the play and loved Badeia's dancing and singing,
not to mention her captivating beauty and they sang with her many
of the songs that became big hits of the time:
"Ya mena-anesha Ya Betaaet Elloze
Taali NelAb Fard We Goze"
(You beautiful and fresh girl selling Almonds.
Come on let's play: Singles or doubles?)
&
"Yabol KeshaKesh Ya Tara?
Kan Bas Eih Elli Gara?"
(Oh Mr. KeshaKesh I wonder?
What could have happened to you?)
Every night, Badeia was very careful to present a new dance routine
and a new piece of music and a new costume, which kept the audience
very intrigued and eager to see what new things she was going
to enchant them with. All this fame and audience admiration opened
various financial and artistic doors to the young Badeia.
During all this stardom and success, the hero and heroin of the
play got married which made them even more of a centre of attraction.
The marriage lasted for two whole years, but without children,
and they got divorced. Badeia did not continue in the same play
with other members, but decided to start her own company and rented
a dance hall in Emad El Deen Street, the street famous in that
time for the nightclubs, entertainment houses and dance halls,
and she started her own show - dance company presenting all forms
of dance and singing and male and female monologists, comedy sketches
as well as presenting the most beautiful dancers in the whole
country, and she used present one or two pieces with her singing
with a line of chorus girls dancing and singing behind her, as
well as ending the night with a big presentation of various styles
of Egyptian dance, which later on got the name of "RAKS SHAQUI"
(Oriental Dancing).
You see, the pure Egyptian dancing is called BALADI (that which
is of the country or home grown, or my own country) (Please refer
to the article on the site by the heading of (Zeinab). In this
particular dance hall of Badeia, many dancers and singer and groups
of dancers, folkloric or otherwise presented various shows during
the night. The way the music would be, it would have a grand introduction
with big orchestration and Egyptian as well as classical style
arrangement, then have some very Egyptian style of music and presenting
a variety of Egyptian and Middle Eastern and even foreign styles
of dance and music, then go to the Egyptian Baladi, and finishing
with a grand finale that is derived from the original introduction
music. You can find music of this style in my CDs (ROHE EUCD1082)
& (FADDAH - EUCD1614).
The success of Badeia's club continues for many consecutive seasons,
which led her to buying a piece of land in the Royal Opera Square,
a very famous location in the heart of Cairo, and she built a
magnificent building that contained a big theatre, a reasonable
sized nightclub presenting new talented singers whom later on
became the Leaders of the singing field such as Ibrahim Hammouda,
Farid Al Atrash, Mohamed Abdel Motteleb. As well as many famous
composers such as Mahmoud El Sherif, and musicians/composers such
as Ahmed Sherif ( famous for Wahawi Ya Wahawi { a very famous
song that Egyptian children sing until today in the famous religious
month of Ramadan in which the Muslims Fast from sunrise to sunset})
and the song (Nebayyen Zein We Nedog El Wadaa) ( A famous song
that says I see the future well and I understand reading the seashells,
that is sung by the fortune tellers on the beaches of Egypt) &
the Song of El Erque Soos, The Liquorish Juice man song). Next
to the theatre and the nightclub there was a coffee ship and a
bar on the first floor, and the second floor there was a top class
restaurant and a beautiful roof garden with a breath taking view
of Cairo, old and new at the time.
The Badeia Masabny dance hall presented and gave the world the
legendary dancers whom we know today as (THE STARS OF EGYPTÔ)
such as Taheyya Karioka, Samya Gamal, Naima Akef, Naima Gamal,
Beiba Ezz Eddin, Beiba Ibrahim, Zuzu Mohammed and Juliet who was
adopted by Badeia and gave her the name of Layla Al Shaqraa (Blonde
Layla) and Nadia Salama. Badeia's dance troupe was also the bouncing
board and take off runway for other famous stars such as Soraya
Helmy and Ismail Yassin (two of the greatest comedians of Egypt)
and the writers Abou El Saud Al Ibiary, Mahmoud Fahmy, Ibrahim
El Qalawy and Fahmy Aman. All these names dominated the filed
of cinema, theatre and nightclub scenes during the 40's and a
large chapter of the 50's, when Badeia fled back to Lebanon after
the 23rd of July 1952 revolution in Egypt in fear of having all
her fortune confiscated by the new republican regime.
Badeia produced two films in her time "Layali AL Qahira"(The Nights
Of Cairo) and "Maleket El Masareh" (The Queen Of Theatres){{Dance
clips from these two films are being added now to the "STARS OF
EGYPT""""" video series}}.
After her divorce from Nageeb El Rihany, Badeia did not remarry,
and returned to Lebanon as mentioned above, after selling her
artistic centre and all to her student Beiba Ezz Eddin and opened
a restaurant on the hill face of the Lebanese mountain and lived
there until her final curtains were drown.
Dancers, singers, musician, artists and audiences from the Middle
East owe an appropriate acknowledgement to the late Badeia Masabny
for having the vision and strength to create the very first platform
for the Egyptian and Arabian arts to be presented to all and to
give us all the stars whom we admire and follow until today.
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