Zaki is Back !

Zaki is Back !

• April 1, 2015 12:35 pm
• Mix Magazine
• Night Life
• 3 comments

The first time I saw Zaki perform was way back in 1999 when he was the resident singer at the Ghazala Beach bar. Over the following years I spent many a happy evening listening to him perform, having a bit of a boogie and chatting during his breaks about living in Sharm.

A few years ago he moved on from there to perform in some of Sharm’s classiest hotels and in doing so denied us poor locals access to his talents.

Fortunately thanks to the owners of El Panorama knowing a good thing when they see it, residents and visitors can enjoy his dulcet tones every Friday night from 9pm.

I went along to see him and ask him what he has been up to since the halcyon days at Ghazala and have an overdue catch-up with one of my favourite performers.

So Zaki where have you been since leaving Ghazala? You’ve been missed at the Beach Bar… I’ve been working at various hotels – sometimes it is time to move on and with the economic climate a few years ago it was a little tough. Now I do 2 nights at the Hyatt, 2 nights at the Iberotel Palace and of course Fridays here. That still leaves me time to take my wife out to dinner and have some evenings to myself.

Your lovely wife is German isn’t she? Did you meet her here?

No, actually we met while I was studying in Germany. We were married when we first came to Sharm on holiday and the story of my time here started.

I know you’ve been in Sharm for a long time – at least ever since I can remember – how many years exactly?

21 years now since we moved here. I was lucky enough to catch the attention of the owner of Seti Sharm and be offered a contract to come here to work. It was the start of my career here that led on to working at the Hilton Fayrouz and then Ghazala. Back in those days there were a lot fewer hotels and opportunities.

I enjoyed working at the Ghazala and ended up staying 16 years. But it is not all luck getting work like that – I know you have a really varied set and I’ve heard you sing in at least 3 languages! Yes, I learned English and French at school and thanks to Sharm’s many nationalities I can get by in Spanish and Italian too – and of course Arabic! It was at school in Alexandria that my music started developing. We all listened to music in English and wanted to be like our heroes. I was 12 when we formed our first band and started to play all the music we recorded from the radio.

I’ve only ever seen you perform solo – did you enjoy being in a band?

I loved being in a band and working with other musicians but when I first came here I had to work with backing tracks. Now I’m used to being alone and having the freedom to perform songs I choose. A band is fun but sometimes the people disagree – you can’t disagree with yourself.

Did your family encourage you or were they worried you’d become a rock star and go off the rails?

My father always encouraged me to sing and told me I had a good voice but he also made me study and wisely made sure my education came first.

Over the years I’ve built up businesses as well as having a singing career.

You have a recording studio in Hadaba is that one of your businesses or just for you?

It started out that I needed somewhere to practise and put together my music. My wife wanted a little peace from my singing all the time!
Over time I built up more and more equipment and started helping other musicians and singers make demos and CD’s. Since then it has grown into a full multi-media operation and I work with TV channels and do web design.

Dimension for Multi-Media and Entertainment is the project I want to take forward. With the Internet being such a big part in music and entertainment now I see it as the future.

Going back to the music for a moment, I’ve always enjoyed listening to you because you seem to have the same taste in music as I do and that lovely deep voice that can carry it off!

Yes I’ve always loved songs that have emotion and tell a story – artists like Chris Rea, Barry White, Bob Seger, Joe Cocker – all the old rockers and anything that moves me.

So do you ever get time to yourself? You mentioned taking your wife out to dinner, but I get the impression you are a busy man with little time to relax. Between the singing, the studio, my work as entertainment manager at Hollywood and my laundry at Sunny Lakes (a laundry
too?!?!) no you are right there isn’t much down time. I will confess to enjoying playing football on the Playstation though – it is less effort that actually running around a pitch and helps clear my mind when I want to relax.

Zaki and I carried on chatting for a while longer about the old days, our favourite songs and TV talent shows; he feels he is now too old for these and I assured him he was way better than most young singers on television. I also found out that his daughter is carrying on the family tradition by singing in her school choir and taking part in competitions at the highest level – talent obviously runs in the family. Perhaps one day she will perform here with her father, now that is something to look forward to.