Ramy Essam, the "Revolution Singer": "Music has this effect on you - it can soothe you, and it can also fire you up"

Ramy Essam is a delightful 23 year old, whom I first met on February 3rd, the day following the thugs-and-horseback-riders attack we now refer to as "the day of the camels". He's a big guy, and generally tucks long hair underneath a knitted hat; that day, he also had a large bandage around his head and one on his upper lip, which failed to conceal his large, seemingly always amused smile.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 9 March, Ramy was in Tahrir, where he and others were attacked by the army and a number of armed thugs, and was "arrested" and dragged him to the Egyptian Museum. There, he was tortured. By the army, yes. By his own testimony, which I include at the bottom of this post, he was beaten with sticks, bars, hoses, and electrocuted - first by one, then with several tasers at a time. He was later released.


I last spoke to Ramy Essam two days before his beating. "I'm finalizing my album with songs from the Revolution, and you're the first journalist I'm revealing this to: the album's name will be "Al Midaan". "The Square".

A Mansoura native, he first demonstrated there for the first few days, then came to Cairo on January 30th, "where it became obvious that it was the heart of the revolution, and where I felt I could give more".
"And I wasn't even going to bring my guitar - I told my buddy "where would I put it, if I'll be sleeping in the square? I was scared for my guitar - I love it as I would my own child!"

He didn't get much sleep though. "At first I was singing, on the sidewalk, and people were gathering. Then those two kids came along, with a mic and a speaker, and shoved that in front of my face. The next day, a stage was put up - and I was there".

"I was writing songs on the spot. On the square, I wrote. When something would happen to us, I wrote. At one point I selected the most important chants - يسقط يسقط حسني مبارك (down down with Hosni Mubarak), إرحل إرحل (Leave, Leave) and الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام (The People demand the fall of the regime) - and put those in music. People were starting to get tired of the repetitiveness, and I figured people would like the music. Music has this effect on you - it can soothe you, and it can also fire you up".

The man sang tirelessly. On February 2nd, the 'day of the Camels', he was injured in the head and in the face - the next day he was still singing, with an awkward bandage on his upper lip.

"I never stopped singing. I don't know where I found the strength, but I kept going on, from this stage to the next, to the street, and back".

He was dubbed "The singer of the revolution" - which both amuses, and embarrasses him a little.

"It's only after the revolution that I realized that - there were vids and songs on Youtube, on television. I don't know why I was given this nickname - I guess because I was there from the beginning, I was the first to sing against the government, unlike some other singers who belatedly decided to support the movement, but failed to earn people's love. And perhaps also because I was at the front-lines where there was a battle, with everyone else, without thinking twice."

"The album I'm working on will contain songs from Tahrir square, and I'm calling it Al Midaan - (the Square), because I would really like for people who weren't there to get a feel of what it was like on the ground."

"And now I'm hoping I'll go back to being an artist, and hopefully helping raise of standards of Egyptian songwriting.
And I'm going to keep speaking up".

I tell him I want a signed copy of the CD when it's out. He laughs and promises me he'll send me one.

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Rami's testimony of the events on Wednesday. The translation is from Atr-Al-Nada's blog.

“My name is Rami Essam, I´m 23 years old. I was in Tahrir Square with the rest of the people on Wednesday, March 9th , 2011. At approximately 5:30 pm we were surprisingly attacked by the military and a large group of civilians armed with sticks, batons and bricks. Together they destroyed the tents, tore the banners, beat everybody who was in the middle of the square and started arresting people. A group of soldiers dragged me towards the museum´s building and handed me to army officers who tied my hands and legs up and started kicking me all over my body and face. Then they started hitting me on my back and legs with sticks, metal bars, wires, and hoses. After that they brought the electric taser that was used in demonstrations before and used it on various parts of my body, then they started using more than one taser at the same time. The officers insulted me and stomped with their feet, jumped over my back and face, and threw shoes in my face. Then they cut my hair (it was long) and put my face in the dirt before burying my body neck down.



[First photo I lifted from Facebook. The second one is mine, From February 3rd.]