4 - 10 January 2001
Issue No.515
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 4 - 10 January 2001 Issue No.515 |
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Open buffet
Back in the day, belly dancer Soheir Zaki used to get LE750 to perform at a wedding. When her friends and agents told her she was selling herself short, she refused to raise her prices. "I won't do it, because I always want to be like a ful sandwich, which both the rich and the poor can afford."
Mohamed Rakha has been an agent for the stars since 1958A star for every budget: (from left) Amr Diab, Hisham Abbass, Hakim, Shaaban Abdel-Rehim
So says Mohamed Rakha, the man they call the grandfather of promoters. Rakha has seen it all in 40 years of dealing with the stars, and these days, he doesn't like what he sees. Based in a first-floor office overlooking the Institute of Arabic Music on Ramsis Street, the wiry, serious Rakha is camped behind an immense desk. Behind him is a picture of his 20-year-old self, chilling with legends Umm Kulthoum and Baligh Hamdi at a rehearsal. Another picture, right in front of him, is a large poster-size shot of pop star Mustafa Qamar with Rakha's son.
"In the early '70s", Rakha says, "we used to be able to get five acts for LE500-600." Now you've got to have a huge budget just to get someone decent." In other words, you'd have to be prepared to drop some serious cash for a big promoter like Rakha to give you some of his precious time. And even for that kind of money, you're not really getting quality entertainment. Agents say that today's singers are all just mo'adiyeen, mere "performers." They're just getting the job done. "Unfortunately," Rakha says, "stars today don't sing. They just jump around."
As their agent, do any of his stars get upset when he says these things about them? "No," Rakha thunders. "I'm just expressing my opinion." And Rakha isn't shy about his opinion: "The loud music is meant to hide the bad voices," he states matter-of-factly. More importantly, he admits, "These stars don't deserve these rates."
The latter point is the bottom line. For the most part, the cost of getting a real, live famous singer to perform exclusively for you and your guests at your wedding is steadily becoming prohibitive. Only the spectacular once-in-a-lifetime wedding might feature, for instance, a $35,000 Nawal Al-Zoghbi. Even Mustafa Qamar and Mohamed Fouad -- just a few years ago in the realm of the reasonable -- now straddle rates that only someone with cash to burn can afford.
Why have so many stars decided to over-value themselves? For one thing, they're already doing well enough not to have to work the rounds at hotels just to pick up their pay. And, of course, there are also so many other ways to make money as an entertainer nowadays -- selling the rights to your songs to mobile phone companies, advertising agencies. Why croon for the bride and groom when you can launch an acting career or start a fashion line? No wonder so many singers can't wait to get out of the wedding grind.
But Rakha says these stars are doing themselves a disservice. They're speeding up their own extinction. These prices, Rakha says, are driving a wedge in the relationship between a singer and his listeners; helping to sever that last connection between an icon and reality.
From his vantage point at the nightly star-meets-crowd level, Rakha has seen the act of singing -- with its rhythm and melody, its words and mood -- transformed into a purely money-making venture. He says the same upsetting trend has infiltrated the comedian's market as well. "They're all just imitators. So what if you dress up like Fifi Abdou and make fun of her? Where are the original jokes, the funny, thought-provoking monologues?" he growls. But not all promoters are as pessimistic as Rakha.
An organiser handling weddings at a popular wedding venue in Heliopolis, says 75 per cent of the couples who have their weddings there get a DJ, a singer and a belly dancer. But with prices for bigger names going up and up, star bookings are getting less and less -- not that these guys are feeling the pinch. "People are spending the same on weddings," the organiser said, "but since the big stars' prices have gone up, people now say, 'I'll get two smaller stars instead of one'." It seems people are more concerned with getting more bang for their buck than with being a showcase for vanity.
The new economics also means stars who want to work can no longer be picky about what time they're going to show up. They get their order and they do as they're told. "The market is not good enough to support that kind of moodiness anymore," is the conclusion. Singers have to be careful not to be late, because agents like Rakha will warn potential customers that the guy they've chosen has a tendency to be late, or to not show up at all. And of course, once that happens, the couple usually chooses someone else.
That's good news for upstarts like Bahaa Sultan and Tareq El-Sherif, who try harder and are better than bigger stars when it comes to getting the crowds excited. The best singers are those who, like Mustafa Qamar, have enough fast-paced, "happy" songs in their own repertoire to keep the crowd going, without having to dip into someone else's songbook. "Medhat Saleh may be a better singer, but not too much of his music is appropriate for weddings," the organiser said.
Agents say that making the newlyweds happy is still the name of the game, even if the numbers and the names have changed. Rakha mentions the longest wedding he ever organised. It took place just a few years ago, from 8.00pm to 8.00am, and the bride's main condition was that it feature eight major acts, one after the other. Apparently -- and beyond comprehension -- most of the invitees stayed to the end. "I'll never forget the fact that Ihab Tawfiq came out to sing at 6.00am," Rakha says, laughing. "Something like that will never happen again."
Who can you afford?
If your wedding has to have star power and familiar faces singing, dancing and telling jokes, here's a sample of how much you're going to have to shell out:
Singers
$35,000
Nawal Al-Zoghbi, Kazem Al-Saher (plus LE50,000 for his band)LE100,000
WardaLE60,000
Hani Shaker, Amr DiabLE20,000
Mohamed FouadLE15,000
Mustafa QamarLE12,000
Samir SabriLE10,000
HakimLE8,000
Hisham Abbass, Mohamed El-EzabiLE7,500
Ihab TawfiqLE6,500
Khaled Aggag (LE10,000 after his latest tape), Mohamed El-Helw, Amer MounibLE3,500
Mohamed RushdieL3,000
Shaaban Abdel-RehimLE1,700
Bahaa SultanLE1,200
Tareq El-SherifBelly dancers
LE12,000
Lucy, Fifi AbdouLE7,000
DinaLE5,000
Asmahan (Argentinian)LE3,000
SafwaLE2,500
Nour (Russian)Comedians
LE4,000
Adel El-Far, Azab showLE2,000
Faisal KhorshidDJs
LE4,500
Yasser Shaker, Hani Wahba
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