Khaled Selim is one of Egypt’s unique voices which have always been connected to the most romantic love songs in the history of modern Arab music. His career started in 2000 and captured the hearts of his fans. In 2002, he was named King of Romance after releasing the soundtrack of the movie “El Selem wel teaban” with his smashing love song “Ana Habeit” and his song “Eish”. Success has been his companion for the past decade starting with his Album “Alam Tany” released in 2000. Following the release of 6 Albums with record production companies, Khaled decided to do his own creation which is his 7th album released in 2010, “Da Ana” or “This is me”. His latest album simply reflects a free style of music and lyrics, including two songs in foreign languages, “Desert Queen” in English and “Cuatro Letras” in Spanish. The album is entirely Khaled’s production. He also released a new video for the chief song of the album “Adey Aleik” that contains a fusion of the intro for Om Kolthum’s greatest song “Enta Omry”, not to mention the unique style of the video, the new idea and most of all, the fresh new look. DG was lucky enough to be the first magazine to interview Khaled Selim to expose the story behind this “New Comeback” and find out his hottest news.

 

I have many ideas and a lot of the production companies would not have been able to support my freedom of thoughts. The contracts are always, one sided contracts that give additional rights to the producers than myself. One of them is the royalties on my voice which will not be something I would do. I thought of producing singles and when I found that I had 8 songs ready, I started to create the album. It was challenging, and I felt that it is mine and all the ideas belonged to me. I chose the song writers and the composers, and decided on everything in the album and all the details. I had a great designer, Khaled Talaat and a great photographer Mahmoud Abu Salama working with me on designing the cover. I also wrote on the cover of the album with my own handwriting, explaining that this album reflects who I am. It was an amazing experience with an incredible team who helped me to emerge with this album.

 

Your video for “Adey Aleik” is receiving great success due to the new style of directing, the video is only you singing without any models or dancers, did you feel this was a risk, you being the one who produced it? Was it your idea as well?
It was a risk as I had to come up with new ideas in order to be innovative and daring as I wanted it to be different. The majority of the viewers liked it because it was without any models or dancers and the focus was on me. The video was a translation to the name of the album “This is me”. I had to work hard to have my body in shape and the direction of the clip was great as it was focusing on how I moved .The director Chevan is the one who came up with this idea. He is the reason why the video came out with this quality. Foreign viewers of the video were amazed that an Arab artist could achieve such a good quality video clip. I also want to thank Mohamed Gabr the DOP. The video was also drawn on a story board prior to directing it. The lighting was focusing on details and Gabr was able to do everything exactly how the director wanted the video to appear.

 

This new look has received plenty of positive comments from your fans, especially the female fan base. What was the motive behind this change? I just wanted to feel different in every way. No stylist was behind it. I simply took the shaver and shaved my head. Gradually I started to get used to it. I am more contented with my new look (Laughing). It has made my life much easier as I don’t require time to prepare my hairstyle before going to an interview or being on screen. I generally take the opinion of people, but this time I wanted to do something for my part.   How did your fans react to the intro for “Ady Aleik”, as when you first hear the song you would think it is a remix for Om Kolthum’s “Enta Omry”, did you do that on purpose to surprise the listeners? Amir Mahrous, the sound engineer and the music arranger, is the one who came up with this idea as it translates the words of the song. I really like it and if I had noticed that it would cause a problem I would not have done it. This time the music was defining the lyrics. I liked the reaction of people as they felt that it is

a reviving of Om Kalthum’s song. I only took the part from the song that would not cause any legal contradictions.

 

You are the first Egyptian and Arab artist to sing a whole song in English and another one in Spanish and your fans reacted positively to this, do you think you can have another album with only English or only Spanish or perhaps both?
(Enthusiastically) Actually, this is one of my plans for the near future. It is a project that I want to do. I want to produce an entire album in Spanish and English. It won’t really cost me as I can do it abroad with foreign composers and foreign song writers who will not charge me on the spot and will get their royalties from the SASAM.

 

Would you consider having remixes for these songs to be able to circulate them in clubs in Europe and US?
I can do that because remixes increases the circulation of the songs. If it is compiled in a Buddha Bar CD, it would also put me on the international arena.

 

Desert Queen has received great success as a song in your new album, have you thought of releasing a video for it? How is that coming along?
Yes very soon. I will be meeting with the Director Yasser Sami and he is enthusiastic about it not because it could be an international song, but he thinks it is a daring new idea and he wants to be one of the people supporting the success of the album, along with my success.

 

Have you thought of making duets with international artists? If it is possible, who would it be and why?
(Nodding) Yes of course. Number one on my list is Mariah Carey because of her amazing voice. There is a Spanish Flamenco Singer as well that I really admire, Nina Pastori, I would love to have a Spanish duet with her. Beyonce as well has the voice and the looks and I would love to be with her in a duet song and a video. She is a multi-talented Artist and in fact, the only Artist who impresses me on stage after the late Michael Jackson. Last but never least, Brian McKnight. His voice is unique and I would love to work with him.

 

There are Arab Artists who are working with international DJ’s to have remixes for their songs. Have you thought of doing the same? Who would be the DJ that you would like to work with?
I would love to do that. Not to imitate, but this is the right thing to do. I would love to work with David Guetta and Edward Maya and because I support local talents, I would love to work with Hany Samba after I heard his amazing remix for Shakira’s song She Wolf.

 

We heard you sing one of Fairouz’s songs in a TV program recently, and you were amazing. Have you thought of reviving old songs and including them in your albums?
Old songs have a special place in people’s hearts and I cannot change it. I already sang songs for Fairouz in the Cairo Opera House. I am one of the few male singes who sang for Fairouz and if I have the right Orchestra, I would definitely want to revive her songs.

 

Which song would you want to revive and possibly introduce new fusions to?
The songs I would love to revive are “Edesh Kan fi nas”, “Habbo Badon”, “Keifak Enta” and “Dallo Etzakaroona”.

 

You recently appeared in Star Academy 7 and spent the night at the Academy with the students, actually you were the first Artist to do this the first time back in Star Academy 3. Tell us about the experience and how different was this time as opposed to
Season 3?
I was very happy to sing for the second time on star academy stage. I sang with Maghraby who is one of my favorites. I was pleased to see Shoukry because he is a friend of mine. However, I was very upset that I was unable to sing any of my new albums songs. LBC wanted the old songs in particular because the Album was not released in Lebanon at the time. It was due to the fact that the Melody office in Lebanon had not circulated the album in Lebanon at the time I was performing in Star Academy. I was happy to spend the night at the Academy and live a day with the students to see what it was like. It was really interesting to be seen by all the viewers of star academy 24 hours and I felt I was with my friends and I admired all the candidates. I also used it to promote my album. It wasn’t planned and when they asked me to stay I thought why not because I liked the season 7 candidates.