Music producer Hassan El-Shafei and Abla Fahita (Photo: Courtsy of Hassan El-Shafei official Facebook page)
A music video co-starring Egypt’s favourite puppet Abla Fahita has garnered over 800,000 views on YouTube in only three days.
The song Mayestahlushi (‘They’re not worth it’), a collaboration with music producer Hassan El-Shafei, has been the most watched YouTube clip in Egypt for two days in a row, and is number 14 in the list of songs played worldwide on Soundcloud website, with over 210,000 plays.
The song title has also become a trending hashtag on Twitter, garnering over 10,000 tweets.
In the song, the puppet talks about being misunderstood, singing: “People exhaust me, they don’t get me, because I’m like no one else.”
Earlier this year, Abla Fahita was accused by local conspiracy theorist Ahmed Spider of broadcasting coded messages about planned terrorist attacks during an advert for Vodadone Egypt in which she starred. In a televised verbal exchange with the puppet, Spider vowed to see her jailed for her terrorism links.
The incident was not the first time that the puppet has been in hot water, to the amusement of her fans. Financial analyst Sameh Abu Arayes also accused the puppet of broadcasting “Masonic messages” in an advert for Dolce ice cream in 2013.
Twitter users were quick to note the allusion in Mayestahlushi to the conspiracies Fahita has been accused of. "They flip through my notebook…trying to figure out my words. Why are they so obsessed? My story belongs to me," Fahita declares in the video.
The song is released by Basement Records, and the music video, which stars Abla Fahita and El-Shafei, was directed by Ali Ali.
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