“Smile” – Tamer Hosny and Shaggy’s Feel-Good Arabic Music Video

Juan Cole 04/10/2012

Egyptian singing star (“the King of Pop”) Tamer Hosny, a late convert to the Egyptian revolution, and Shaggy released this music video, entitled “Smile” a couple of months ago and it is still in ART’s Top Ten.

Since the amount of Smiling, kindness and generosity that goes on every day in the Arab world is under-appreciated in the West, am posting it here. It is set in New York.

Hosny had earlier in the last decade been known as a supporter of the Mubarak regime, and when he changed his mind and tried to perform last winter in Tahrir Square, he was attacked and had to be ushered away by the military.

This is a valiant attempt to figure out the lyrics:

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page