Interviewer: Maram Mohamed
Writer: Nada Elnady
Editor: Abdulellah
Imagine with us: 6-year old Ahmed is out with his friends one night, and as he walks along, involuntary humming a tone to himself, his friends urge him on, and what was once faint humming became full-blown singing, and from there, the talent we’ll be presenting you with tonight was uncovered.
Meet Ahmed Nihad, a 23-year old MIU Mass Comm undergraduate who likes to see the good in every fault and aspires to pursue singing for as long as his passions run true. When he first decided to sing, he started by posting 10-second videos on Instagram and vine covering English songs, and as the videos started receiving good reactions and people started asking for longer covers, he urged himself on, and the full covers pulled along the fans, events and ,of course, the urge to diversify. Since then, Arabic songs started coming into the picture.
“I was constantly asked by my fans why I wouldn’t sing in Arabic, and when I gave it a try, it was more of Underground Arabic than actual proficient one, so I decided to take courses to provide the audience with something worth-hearing. Their reactions were certainly pleasing, most of them saying that I certainly sang better in my mother tongue.”
Ahmed Nihad
As you can see, Ahmed was never one to stand there and wait for improvement to achieve itself on its own, and this doesn’t only apply to taking courses in order to sing better in Arabic. He would learn how to play instruments to add a spice to the mixture, he would make sure that whatever video he publishes next is better and obviously improved than the previous one, and he’d jump between singing either Arabic or English to mashing up both into what became his fans’ favorite. He always opted for change, and by time, he went out of the Instagram circle and started posting on YouTube and Facebook too, both of which received equally amazing feedback.
Now comes the interesting part: the role of every Egyptian family in the lives of their artistic children.
“My whole family was against me becoming a singer, not liking the fact that I’ll be working as a ‘m8annawati’. They were too convinced that it’s solely a phase, that I’ll get bored at some point and move back the right track, not realizing that this is what I love and wish to pursue. When they saw the progress I achieved, they started admitting to the truth.”
Ahmed Nihad
However, even though his family as a whole were against such a decision, his mom was surprisingly not, and she thoroughly encouraged him, the videos, the courses, and the pathway itself (God bless her).
Just like any other singer who started doing what he loves from scratch, Ahmed received various forms of criticism in different amounts throughout his life, and he dealt with them differently in every stage of his life. The most critical stage was during school, when his close circle of friends were the only supporters and often every person he met would mock his choice. His confidence increased tenfold when he reached university though, having established a solid fan base and a huge number of supporters. When we asked about how he deals with the hate comments, he said:
“I was raised to believe that all what is said around me are mainly opinions that I shouldn’t work with. I would surely be affected by them that sometimes I would question my own voice and abilities, yet I would let the success the next video achieves reply in my stead. I’d also try and perceive the comment as constructive criticism, working on myself to avoid a possible fault I found in the video.”
Ahmed Nihad
When we asked Ahmed what makes a good singer, he replied with “passion” without even a moment’s thought. He believes that being passionate, admitting to the fact that we are bound to face downfalls, and making sure we become stronger makes a good “anything”, not only a singer. He also mentioned this anecdote to further stress his point:
“The last cover I posted was a year and a half ago, and during this time, there were so many conflicts between the band members and in the production that he didn’t post anymore. It was a really rough time where I also faced even psychological problems that tore me apart. What pushed me to go back up was when I’d scroll through my old videos and remember people’s reactions to them. I even received multiple DM’s from fans asking about my whereabouts during that time. My mom, friends, and audience were my biggest influence.”
Ahmed Nihad
The most meaningful event when it comes to Ahmed was Travis iSpark in 2017, due to it being his first time singing on a big stage with a large crowd. The biggest one though was him singing the opening and the closing of the World Youth Forum in front of Egypt’s president, an achievement and an experience that can’t even be put into words. Ahmed now mainly performs in universities, such as AUC, GUC and BUE.
When it comes to his future plans, Ahmed is working on his first album and plans to publish it by the end of this year.
And as always, at the end of this eventful journey, Ahmed wanted to share a piece of his experience with you, an advice to every person out there who is insecure about something even though they love it to pieces.
“Always be passionate about what you’re doing. Even if everyone is against what you’re doing, you shouldn’t care as long as it’s what you love and wish to pursue. You have to know that you might face so many downfalls and even fail, yet you have to learn how to get back up. Don’t strive to reach perfection from the first step, always give yourself the space to make mistakes and learn from them.”
Ahmed Nihad
