Shahira Kamal excitedly walked into a small venue to perform, a much less frequent occurrence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when she stopped dead in her tracks. “Not a single person was wearing a mask,” the 37-year-old singer, visual artist, and art instructor recalls. She knew it was the venue’s responsibility to ensure that patrons keep their masks on, and the musicians in her group were already masked, but she still felt uneasy, despite the smaller attendance due to the venue’s reduced capacity. Unfortunately, it was during that concert that several of her friends caught COVID-19, including her sister, and it made her feel conflicted between doing what she loved and maintaining the safety of her loved ones. “It’s very frustrating; you don’t know whether you should jeopardize your musical career for health reasons or just give in [and perform amidst the health risk],” she explains. The pandemic’s health risks presented just one of the many challenges faced by Egypt’s live musicians since March 2020, and it wasn’t even the most pressing one. The uncertainty of the pandemic’s early days When the first curfew was imposed in Egypt in March…
From On Stage to On-Screen: The Pandemic’s Effect on Egypt’s Live Musicians
August 26, 2021
