Egyptian singer and songwriter Dina El-Wedidi is hosting an online concert on Monday evening through her YouTube channel, performing a collection of fan favourites from her repertoire, which combines Egyptian heritage with a contemporary flavour and wider African and global influences.

"I love to end this year with you," El-Wedidi said, calling on her 1.4 million Facebook fans to stay tuned for the event, adding that "[together] we will welcome 2021, which will be ours."

El-Wedidi, who is one of the most active Egyptian indie artists and is widely known for her folk-rooted influences, has been relatively active throughout this challenging year.

Her last public appearance was at the Cairo International Film Festival, where she and other participants discussed “being a woman in a creative industry” as part of Cairo Industry Days earlier in December.

In late October, El-Wedidi participated in a collaborative online live concert hosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum Cairo in Room Art Space, pairing with Austrian band Sladek to release an original single titled 'Keep On.'

In addition to releasing a few singles including 'Kont Bkhaf', El-Wedidi performed at several venues and events in 2020, including the Cairo Opera House in September and Bibliotheca Alexandrina, where she performed the opening concert of the Summer Festival in mid-August, as well as the Dandara Festival in Qena in March.

Among El-Wedidi's highlights of 2020 was her feature with Mohamed Mounir in an online concert in Ramadan, where she sang a few classic songs of his, including 'Alemouny Einiky' and 'West El-Dayra.'

In Monday's online concert, El-Wedidi is expected to perform some of her most popular tracks, including El-Sirah, Kotr El-Wagaa and Fi Belad El-Agayeb, as well as Tedawar w-Tergaa, which was re-launched in April in an acoustic version, a few weeks after the shocking death of lyricist Mido Zoheir, who wrote some of her best songs.

Throughout her fruitful, decade-long career, El-Wedidi, who discovered her talent with El-Warsha Theatre Troupe, worked with music heavyweights like Brazilian Gilberto Gil, Egyptian Fathy Salama, and Palestinian singer-songwriter Kamilya Jubran.

With the lack of on-location Christmas concerts this season due to the pandemic, returning to watching live concerts by favourite artists from home could be the best entertainment activity during the most wonderful time of the year.

After cultural events were cautiously reopened starting July, El-Wedidi has been among the first singers returning to online performances amid an alarming second wave of COVID-19 in Egypt, where daily reported cases have been surpassing 1,000.

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