Egyptian musician Cherine Amr has signed an agreement with Universal Music MENA record label, headquartered in the UAE, which will see it support and promote five of the musician’s songs through marketing and distribution.

The first song, titled Esmi (“My Name”), was released on 30 April. The accompanying music video was released on Universal Music MENA’s YouTube channel, YouMusic Arabia.

“There are stars out there with my name on them. They are looking at me and lighting my way,” read the lyrics written by the singer, also known as Cheen, which open the music video, recorded on the farm of her friend, some 30 minutes away from 6 October city on the outskirts of Cairo.

As she walks in between the citrus fruit trees, the lyrics describe a much broader journey, one in which she moves from one location to another, down streets and past buildings, through the fog, accompanied by a cloud that protects her and anger that defends her, as she begins befriending it.

With everything around her carrying her name, being part of who she is and carrying her footprints, it seems Cheen is now ready to start touching on reality in her own creative way.

With music written by Cherine and Ali Kaliuby (her band’s guitarist and also the producer of the song), Esmi opens with a very minimalistic character, a returning component of Cheen’s compositions. The cyclical structure and neat harmonic content, supported first by guitars then some electronic sounds, allows Cheen’s narrative to come across strongly, even before the music climaxes into more sturdy dynamics.

The final repetitive lyrics, “There is a normal place for me,” show how Cherine tackles personal matters in a very touching way. Her longing becomes evident and while she is, or has been, consumed by this emotion, she finds that “there is no harm in writing songs,” as she says in the track.

The Egyptian farm in the video emphasises the message of home, possibly one she left five years ago when she moved to Canada.

Speaking to Ahram Online, Cheen reiterates that, lyrically, her songs reflect her personal experiences in life – naturally for a growing musician. However, while unveiling her innermost thoughts through music and the sincerity of her lyrics, she now builds a stronger connection with the listener.

“In the last five years, I have gone through very challenging times, between moving to Canada and going through personal problems. I have noticed that I have been disassociating a lot, and I found that I’m grounding myself through writing songs,” she tells Ahram Online.

She carries a lot of new maturity that her life and experiences have brought her along the way. Coming to terms with her life dominated by movement -- geographical, cultural and personal -- she remains faithful to her musical signature, only it is now enriched.

“For many months, I avoid digging down to understand what I’m feeling. Still, the only way I can bring myself and confront the reality of where I am was through writing these songs,” she says, referring to Esmi and the other tracks that will be released via Universal Music MENA.

“I think those who would sync my new songs can really connect with me on so many layers,” she adds.

Esmi is a musically intelligent and honest invitation to Cherine Amr, and that on a much closer level than ever before. The song might be a new discussion we can develop with Cherine, through this and the upcoming songs. 

An Egyptian guitarist, singer and songwriter, Cheen’s career is almost two decades long. She was the first female musician to form a metal band in Egypt, Massive Scar Era (with Nancy Mounir) back in 2004, when she had already been writing her own songs. The band were also known as Mascara.

Then came Ahmad Abdalla’s multi-award-winning film Microphone (2010) starring Khaled Abolaga, Menna Shalaby, and Youssra El-Lozi, in which the director featured one of Cheen’s solo pop-rock songs titled Abaad Makan (“The Furthest Place”).

The success of Microphone has undeniably helped attract a larger audience to the music of Massive Scar Era and Cherine Amr and the following years proved very successful for Cheen. In 2012, Mascara released an EP titled Comes Around You, and their well-known single My Ground came out a year later.

Her other projects include forming a solo band Cheen and releasing an album titled Alam Tany (“Another World”).

Mascara and Cheen’s solo projects were making waves in Egypt’s independent scene, but Cheen then left for Canada. This has naturally affected her artistic presence in her home country.

While finding a new audience in Canada and internationally, over the past five years she has visited Egypt on a few occasions, and performed in the country. Among her most recent appearances was at the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival in April 2019 when Massive Scar Era took the stage of the GrEEK Campus in a concert showcasing female musicians. She also paid a short visit to Egypt in March this year.

Meanwhile, Massive Scar Era is building trust internationally, and as Cheen reveals, has “received a grant from CREATIVE BC (a governmental arm of British Columbia Government) to write and self-produce two songs during the self-isolation. Dylan (our bassist) and I are looking forward to writing those two songs and are recognising the challenges that come with co-writing music in long distance.”

Cheen adds that while Dylan is a producer himself with lots of experience in mixing metal music, she believes the project “will be a learning adventure for both of us, and we are looking forward to starting working on these songs next week.”

Between international commitments and longing for home, Cherine does not reject the idea of returning to Egypt. In fact she might do so, should the circumstances allow.

“I’m trying to come back but the current situation is very tricky. I need to make sure that I have something stable in Egypt to come back to as well,” she says.

Released by Universal Music MENA, a team of several artists worked on the song Esmi and the accompanying music video. They include video directors Cherine Amr, Mohamed Azab, and Ali Kaliuby; video producer Mohamed Azab; music production (mix and mastering) by Ali Kaliuby; music video by Mohamed Azab and English translation of the lyrics by Rola Zeyada. In the video, Cherine Amr gives special thanks to musician, singer and multi-instrumentalist Khaled El Agaty

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