Ammar El Sherei

Ammar Ali Mohamed Ibrahim Ali Al Sherei (Arabic: عمار علي محمد إبراهيم علي الشريعي‎‎) or more commonly known as Ammar El Sherei (16 April 1948 – 7 December 2012) was an Egyptian music icon, performer and composer.

Sherei was born blind on 16 April 1948 in the village of Samalot, 25 km from Minya in Upper Egypt, to a large family of Al Shereis. His father was the mayor of the village. His family moved to Cairo when he was five years-old. There he attended the Demonstration Centre for the Rehabilitationand Training of the Blind (DCRTB). He studied at the English department of Ain Shams University and graduated in 1970. He continued his studies in the US and in Britain. He attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also received three PhDs, including one from the Sorbonne in France.

After graduation, Sherei worked as an accordion musician. He performed in Cairo’s nightclubs and then in the Golden Music Band that was a famous band at that time in Egypt. He became a composer in 1975. He played piano, harp, keyboard and oud. Sherei arranged and wrote soundtracks and scores for movies, television series and soap operas. He was also host of the radio and television show, A Diver in A Sea of Tunes. He composed more than 150 songs for most of the leading music stars of the Arab World, including Warda, Latifa and Ali El Haggar. He was also an assistant professor at the Academy of Arts.

Sherei married at the age of 43. He had a son.

Sherei died of heart failure at the age of 64 at Cairo's Al Safa Hospital on 7 December 2012. His funeral was organized on the night of 10 December 2012 in Al Rahman Al Rehim mosque in Cairo with the attendance of several high-profile figures, government officials and artists.