Egypt’s Dina El Wedidi Talks Life, Love and Loneliness in New Single ‘Kont Bakhaf’

Egyptian singer-songwriter and producer, Dina El Wedidi, has stripped down her sound for her new single, ‘Kont Bakhaf’, a much more minimalist offering from the artist compared to her debut album Turning Back’s Egyptian folkrloric leanings and follow up-album Slumber’s more experimental electronically-produced stylings.

With a simple arrangement of guitar, bass and keyboard, El Wedidi’s vocals are much more measured and restrained than the powerful voice she has come to be known for, a fitting approach to the wistful lyrics, written by Nada Shabrawy.

“I was afraid of the dark, I tried to overcome  my fear/Now I'm afraid of the dark and I'm afraid of the light and the shade,” El Wedidi sings, in simple, catchy Arabic rhymes, before touching on other fears of modern life - death, love, loneliness and other thorny topics where emotion clashes with philosophy.
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The majority of the song progresses with a simple guitar melody, though keyboard chords that drip of a summery melancholy act as a break between verses and inject a psychedelic folk aesthetic to proceedings.

It marks a welcome return for Wedidi, who despite only releasing two full albums in the span of eight years, stands as one of the most unique artists in the Middle East, her LPs deemed as two of the most important and distinctive examples of east meeting west in contemporary Arab music.

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