Ramy Essam

Ramy Essam (Arabic: رامى عصام‎‎, pronounced [ˈɾɑːmi ʕeˈsˤɑːm]; born 1987) is an Egyptian musician. He is best known for his appearances in Tahrir Square in Cairo during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.

Essam was born in 1987 in Mansoura, Egypt.

His song Irhal, in which then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was urged to resign, gained great popularity among the demonstrators. It became internationally known through YouTube, and is referred to as the anthem of the revolution. In 2011, it was selected by Time Out as the third-most world-changing song of all time. He currently sings hard rock songs, one of the few singers in Egypt to sing rock. Ramy also expressed his mourning of the revolution's martyrs on Facebook.

On 9 March 2011, when the Egyptian Army forcibly cleared the square, he was arrested and tortured.

In October 2014, Essam was offered safe city residence for two years by the Malmö Municipality of Sweden. He is the first musician who has been offered this by Malmö but two writers have been offered it before. In addition to the residence permit, he also gets accommodation. He describes his situation as an artist in Egypt as "terrible" and is happy he can come to Sweden to study. Essam says it will be the first time he has the chance to study music, that he will keep make music and be an ambassador of the Egyptian revolution.

Essam was featured on the 2014 compilation Songs from a Stolen Spring that paired Western musicians with artists from the Arab Spring. On the album, Essam's "Bread, Freedom" was meshed with Mighty Sam McClain's performance of "If I Can Dream".

His 2015 release "Foul Cavier" was also featured on Firebrand Records' album "A New World in Our Songs."

Discography