University honors the life of Sheikh Imam, Fouad Negm with musical performance

University students celebrated the life and music of Sheikh Imam, a famous Egyptian composer and singer who, together with famed lyricist and poet Ahmed Fouad Negm, sang against social injustice, exploitation, and corruption, in a session hosted by the Deanship of Student Affairs. 

Mohammad Al-Haj Ahmad, coordinator of student activities at the Deanship of Student Affairs, presented a brief overview of the lives and achievements of Sheikh Imam and Ahmed Fouad Negm. 

The session featured “Ushaq al-Shekih Imam,” a Palestinian cover band that performs the most famous and well-known songs of Sheikh Imam.  

Fouad Negm and Sheikh Imam met in 1962, launching a 30-year career in which the duo sang about national aspirations and against political and social injustice and protested the Lebanese civil war and the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. 

Their songs were not always well received by the authorities. When they sang in support of the 1968 protests against dictatorship in Egypt, they were jailed for three years. In 1973, they were imprisoned for their song “Papa Nixon” that derided the visit of then US President Richard Nixon.