Egypt: Citadel Festival 2019 announces exciting line-up

The organisers have released a list of 11 acts out of the 45 musicians set to perform at the event. The event will feature three headlining Egyptian acts, including Mohamed Mohsen, Hisham Kharma and Egyptian-German ensemble Cairo Steps.

Mohsen is set to perform original compositions along with cover songs of legendary musicians Sayed Darwish, Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Shiekh Imam. 

Kharma and his band will perform a setlist from their 2016 and 2018 albums Al-Yaqeen and Kunn respecively. The band's popularity is based on their fusion of electronic and ethnic sounds.

Cairo Steps will bring their cool jazz grooves to the capital. In 2018, the band's Flying Carpet album won the Album of the Year Award at the German Jazz Awards. The album was recorded alongside German band Quadro Nuevo.

The rest of the line-up includes Ghalia Ben Ali from Tunisia as well as other local acts such as Massar Egbari Band, Nesma Abdel Aziz, Ali El-Haggar, Hani Shaker, Medhat Saleh, Dina El-Wedidi and Omar Khairat.

The festival will also see several individuals honoured for their contributions to the Egyptian arts sector. They include singers Ali El-Haggar, Mohamed El-Helw and Nadia Mostafa, violinist Yasser El-Serafy, Arab Music Festival manager Jihan Morsi, ballerina Sahar Hemi, Artistic House manager Magdi Boghdady and Cairo Ballet group executive manager Abdel-Hakim Taqey.

Citadel Festival for Music and Singing was launched in 1989. It is organised by the Cairo Opera House, the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Previously editions have featured artists from Algeria, China, Namibia and Venezuela