The track Ana Basha El Bahr (“I Adore The Sea”) by Nagat El Seghira will have loopdiggas frothing at the mouth through its reissue by Wewantsounds and Disco Arabesquo – originally only on cassette and produced by Hany Shenouda, also a musician in cult group Al Massrieen. 

The reissue of the collectors’ album from 1980 Eyoun El Alb – first out on the Egyptian label Soutelphan – will please many as it has become a sought-after classic on the Arabic rare-groove scene. Side 2 is the choice side with Bahlam Ma’ak (“I Dream with You”), alongside Ana Basha El Bahr. 

Born in Cairo in 1938, Nagat began singing when she was still a child gaining her stage name “El-Saghira” (“the young one”), she started giving concerts at the age of seven, pushed by her father, the famed calligrapher Muhamad Hosny (Nagat’s half-sister is the renowned actress Soad Hosny). 

​Nagat quickly rose to fame in the late 1940s and became an essential part of the classic period of Arabic music, interpreting songs by such titans as Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Baligh Hamdy and Kamal Al Taweel.

She also sang the works of Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani whom she introduced to a mainstream audience. Nagat started singing shorter songs but then upgraded to longer ones, often performing/recording them live as it was the trend in the 60s and 70s.