Also featuring child-singer Mohamed Osama, the promotional song for Abdel-Aziz’s new film – Men Agl Zeko – was released on 23 December, quickly gaining huge success, potentially putting it among the all-time Arabic smash hits.

The song, which is not even titled in English on YouTube, broke 100 million views in 40 days. It currently tops YouTube’s charts in Egypt and still maintains a foothold on YouTube’s global charts, placing 12th this week after being sixth last week.

Despite this strong showing, El-Ghazala Rayaa still does not compare with the global records set by K-Pop stars like BTS, who were able to break 100 million listens in just one day for hits like Butter and Dynamite. However, Abdel-Aziz’s strong performance could make him contender for a spot in the top streamed Arabic hits. The top spots are currently held by hits like Lm3allem by Morocco’s Saad Lamjarred, which gained 988 million views over six years, and 3 Daqat by Egypt’s Abu feat. Yousra, which has been viewed 705 million times over four years.

On the Arabic-language streaming platform Anghami, El-Ghazala Rayaa tops the local and global charts with 4.7 million listens, a relatively large number. For comparison, the top Arabic song of 2021 was Fady Shwaya by Hamza Namira, which gained 14.7 million listens in over a year, two million more than Ruby’s Heta Tanya, which was streamed 12.5 million times in 10 months.

With almost 1.5 million listens on Spotify, El-Ghazala Rayaa has already reached one-third of the total number of listens as 2021’s most listened song in Egypt, Ghaba by Marwan Pablo (4.5 million listens).

Countless impressions and lip-sync videos made on TikTok and similar platforms have featured the song, with many Egyptian and Arab celebrities participating in the mania, including Ahmed Elsaka, Hisham Maged, Dina El-Sherbiny and Ahmed Elfishawy, among many others.

Other trending Egyptian pop releases include several hits from Tamer Ashour and Bahaa Sultan’s new albums, as well as Ahmed Saad’s Sayrena Ya Donia and Abdel-Baset Hammouda’s Fi Heta Tanya, both also made for the film Men Agl Zeko.

Directed by Peter Mimi of Al-Ekhteyar, Men Agl Zeko is written by Mostafa Hamdy and stars acclaimed actress Menna Shalaby, alongside Amr Abdel-Gelil, Mahmoud Hafez and Mohamed Mahmoud, in addition to a number of cameos by comedians Shiko, Mohamed Tharwat and renowned actress Esaad Yunis.

The youngest son of the late legendary Egyptian actor Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz, Karim started his acting career at an early age in 2000, finding his stardom in recent years with a number of successful commercial films like Hatoly Ragel, Esh Al-Bolbol, Omar & Salwa, Gawaza Mery, Etlaouly Barra, and Mousa.