"O dear O dear it's about a boy whose heart was fresh green, with neither cunningness nor anger."

At the premises of El-Kotobgeia, Maadi's latest bookstore and cultural café, wedding folk songs were chanted to traditional folk rhythms with the background of an enchanting full moon.

Beiba is the name of the troupe that aims to revive and chant the fading away folk songs.

"We started preparing for this troupe about one and a half years ago," explained Poet Reem Shalaby, co-founder of the troupe.

The name Beiba is derived from upper Egyptian slang for connecting, hence the idea behind the troupe that aims to bring together today's audience with their traditional songs, Shalaby added.

Growing up against a vivid traditional folk plateau, Reem, the daughter of renowned novelist Khairi Shalaby, aims to continue the mission of her father whose works highlighted the beauty and uniqueness of upper Egyptian folk arts.

Together with singer Kamal El-Abnoudy, nephew of renowned folk poet, Sira and compiler Abdel Rahman El-Abnoudy, they aim to revive upper Egyptian folk chants.

"Most upper Egyptian folk songs are not sung in their original form, they take a couple of verses and add new songs to them, but we aim to revive the songs in their original form and we depend upon an old book that compiled all of such songs titled Al-Makshouf Wal Mostater fi Ahzan wa Afrah El-Said (The explicit and implicit in the weddings and Sorrow of Upper Egypt-2004) by poet and researcher Karam El-Abnoudy," Shalaby said.

The book is divided into two sections and documents the folk songs of weddings and those associated with grief, ones that date back to the ancient Egyptians named El-Adid.

Beiba also re-introduces authentic folk music instruments such as el-rababa, el-nai and the oud in all their art work.