Sherine Ahmed

Sherine (Arabic: شيرين, born Sherine Abdel Wahhab; also credited as Sherine Ahmed; October 10, 1980) is an Egyptian singer and actress from Cairo. She debuted with single "Ah Ya Leil".*

Born in Cairo, Sherine is a graduate of a prominent Egyptian music academy. Upon graduating, she sought a record company to represent her and manage her musical career. She met up with Free Music Productions' owner and manager Nasr Mahrous. Mahrous signed and released a debut album with fellow singer Tamer Hosny. The album included solo singles, as well as duets. Titled Free Mix, it is one of the mixtapes Mahrous usually produces but was exclusively for these two artists. Although Sherine was a new artist with Free Music, Tamer had signed with Mahrous earlier.

The album included Sherine's debut single, "Ah Ya Leil", which garnered huge success in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. Critics and audience were impressed with Sherine's vocal abilities, but wanted her to revamp her image. The song included local musical styles from traditional Egyptian tarab voice techniques to usage of traditional Egyptian music instruments of the Shaabi genre. Hosny's single, along with the music video, were also received very well and this mixtape was considered a milestone in Free Music's short history.

In 2002, Sherine released her first album as a solo artist titled Garh Tany. The album's first single was the title track, "Garh Tany", and it was well-received. The single consisted mainly of repetition, with intensive manipulation in voice tones and pitch. This is also considered to be a traditional Egyptian voice technique. The music video was released one week earlier from the album release, and the album made huge success in the Egyptian and wider Middle Eastern music market. The album succeeded immensely, to the extent that it sold more than Amr Diab's album "Allem Albi". Sherine witnessed rapid and explosive popularity after this album, and soldified her status as one of the most successful female singers. By North American standards, the album would be the equivalent of certified platinum.

Sherine's second single from the album was "Sabri Aleel", which was an uptempo song, uses slight traditional techniques, but included Nai, Tablah, Heavy Bass and multi-layered voices of Sherine in the choruses. The music video's version of the song was different from the album's, and it was titled "Sabri Aleel - Melody Mix". The song was exclusively broadcast on Melody Hits channel.

Sherine's acting career is short, as she just starred in one comedy movie titled Medo Mashakel. The movie was the #1 movie of the season, however, Sherine as well as critics did not approve of her role or her acting skills. In the movie, Sherine sings and one of the singles sung in the movie was broadcasted on music channels. The song was titled "Balak". It portrays Sherine, as one of the movie's scenes, getting on stage in a friend's wedding and performing the song. The song didn't get as much attention, as it wasn't released on any record.

By this time, and before releasing the single "Ma Btefrahsh", it was reported in magazines and tabloid-newspapers that Sherine was having a fall-out with Nasr Mahrous, but it was not confirmed. Sherine was on a hiatus during that time, as she didn't release any singles nor albums for quite a while, and according to some sources, Sherine was mad at her producer and manager, Nasr Mahrous, for not fulfilling the terms of agreement in their contract.

In early 2005, Promotions for Sherine's new song, "Ma Btefrahsh" showed up on Melody Hits, and a week later the music video was released. The song became quite popular, and it was heavily rotated on Melody Hits. It hit #1 on many countdowns, and like most songs of Sherine, several artists expressed their love for this song, like Ragheb Alama and Nancy Ajram. The song was almost like a comeback to Sherine. It was featured in a mixtape along other singles by fellow Free Music artists, such as Bahaa Sultan, Souma and Tamer Hosny. The mixtape featured another single by Sherine, "Einak". Both songs were frequently aired on Radio channels.

In August 2005, Sherine's new single was also promoted on Melody Hits TV, and it seemed certain that this was going to be one of the album releases as she had said earlier in TV interviews. The promotion shows a camera following Sherine's bare feet walking, up to a chair where she sits, but it doesn't show her face. Another promo had a sample from her second single "Mafeesh Marra".

More than a week later, the single, titled "Lazim Aïsh" was released. It was also produced and directed by Nasr Mahrous, the song took a different form as it was a ballad. This was the title track as well. The album, Lazim Aïsh, was released and bacame the best selling album that year. The album also would be certified platinum as it made huge success. This is the era that soldified Sherine as Egypt's # 1 female singer. No Egyptian female singer witnessed the great level of success she reached. Later on, the second single music video of "Mafeesh Marra" was released, it was an uptempo, fun, hip song which the audience were delighted by its new and unique sound.

In spring 2006, Sherine was chosen to perform the songs for the movie An el-Ish' wel-Hawa. The movie's theme song, Keteer Ben'sha', became a major hit. Recently, she released "Lebnan Fel Alb (Lebanon's in the Heart)", a song dedicated to Lebanon and the victims who fell in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict.

In February 2007, she released a new duet with Hany Shaker under the title Qalbi Leek (My Heart’s Yours). However, this duet was not meant to be released because both Sherine and Hany Shaker recorded the song separately. Sherne decided not to release the song in her album, so Hany Shaker decided to take it and release it in his own album. Nevertheless the composer of the song merged both of their voices, and released the song as a duet.

In early March 2007, she confirmed that she joined a new label: Rotana. A huge, extrvagant press conference and after-party was held in her honor, and now she is recording her album, to be released Summer 2007.

*This article is copied from Wikipedia.org