Amr Diab

Amr Abdel Basset Abdel Azeez Diab (عمرو عبد الباسط عبد العزيز دياب, ; born 11 October 1961) is an Egyptian singer, composer and actor.

He has established himself as a globally acclaimed recording artist and author.

He is a Guinness World Record holder, the best selling Middle Eastern artist, a seven-times winner of World Music Awards and five-times winner of Platinum Records.

Diab was born as Amr Abdel Basset Abdel Azeez Diab (Arabic: عمرو عبد الباسط عبد العزيز دياب) on 11 October 1961 in Port Said to a middle-class Muslim family from the Egyptian countryside of Menia Elamh, in Sharqia Governorate, Egypt.

Diab released his first album entitled in 1983.

Diab's second album, ' (1984), was the first of a series of records he released with Delta Sound; including ' (1986), ' (1987), and ' (1988), with the title track becoming one of the top 10 songs in the world at the time.

Diab graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the Cairo Academy of Arts in 1986.

His later releases include ' (1989), ' (1990), ' (1991), ' (1992), ' (1993), ' (1994), and (1995).

Diab played himself in his first film, , which was released in 1989.

It also starred Madiha Kamel.

By 1992, he became the first Egyptian and Middle Eastern artist to start making high-tech music videos.

His second film was Hussein el-Imam's production Ice Cream in Gleam (), in which Diab starred in 1992, was chosen as one of the best five Egyptian musical films by the University of California, Los Angeles (ULCA) School of Theater, Film and Television.

His third movie was released in 1993, and was named (Laughter and Fun).

In 1996, Diab released his first album with Alam El Phan entitled , and he won the World Music Award for the first time, which proved an international success and gained Diab recognition beyond the Arabic-speaking world.

Diab recorded four more albums with Alam El Phan, including (1999).

Diab also collaborated with Khaled (on the song "") and with Angela Dimitriou (on the song "Bahebak Aktar").

According to research by Michael Frishkopf, he has created a style in the song "", termed as "Mediterranean music", a blend of Western and Egyptian rhythms.

The film was featured in the UCLA Film and Television Archive's new program "Music on the Nile: Fifty Years of Egyptian Musical Films" at James Bridges Theater at UCLA on 6, 8 and 10 April 1999.

David Chute of the LA Weekly termed it "observant" and "a big leap".

In the summer of 2004, Diab, having left Alam El Phan, released his first album with Rotana Records, , which he followed up with the hugely successful ' (2005), and ' (2007).

was released for sale on the internet on 27 June 2009; however, the album was leaked online and was downloaded illegally amid complaints of slow download speed on the official site.

Diab's fans initiated a massive boycott of the sites with the illegal copies.

On 18 October 2009, Diab won four 2009 African Music Awards in the categories of best artist, album, vocalist and song for ""; Diab had been nominated by the Big Apple Music Awards.

In February 2011, Diab released his hit single ' ("Egypt spoke"), followed by the release of his album ' in September, produced by Rotana.

In 2012, Diab hosted the first Google Hangout in the Middle East during his performance in Dubai.

In October 2014, Diab released his album ', which topped his last album ' and again became the best-selling album in Egypt on iTunes.

His 2014 album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard World Albums Charts, making him the first Egyptian and Middle Eastern performer to accomplish such a feat.

In July 2015, Diab released a music video for his song "" from his album .

In March 2016, he released , his first album since he left Rotana Music.

The album was produced by the record label Nay For Media.

His new album was released in July 2017 with Nay Records.

In October 2018, he released a new album called .

In 2019, he released a mini-album, ', and in February 2020 he released his 35th album, ', which included 16 songs.

In February 2022, Anghami announced an exclusive partnership that will see the Diab's entire Nay Label audio and video catalogue and future releases available only on Anghami.

Diab is known as the "father of Mediterranean music".

David Cooper and Kevin Dawe refer to his music as "the new breed of Mediterranean music".

According to author Michael Frishkopf, Diab has produced a new concept of Mediterranean music, especially with his international hit, "".

Moreover, Diab is known as a composer, having composed more than 97 of his own songs.

Diab is one of the first singers to popularize music videos in the whole MENA region and is the first Egyptian singer to appear in music videos.

Diab's fame in the music industry has led him to experiment with other forms of media, such as film.