No matter how old are you, you’ve definitely heard of late music legend, Muharram Fouad. Every single Egyptian out there is familiar with golden age singer who’s famous for being called “The Sound of The Nile”. But little did we know about his grandson, Tamino-Amir Muharram Fouad.

Born and raised in Antwerp, Belgium, the 22-year-old singer was born to an Egyptian father and mother. Tamino-Amir started studying classical music in Amsterdam when he was 17, and later, in 2016, he released his first single, Habibi. The aspiring singer was then signed by a UK-based indie label, Communion, and released his debut album, Amir, in summer 2018. 

Tamino’s throaty voice is extremely soothing and warm and his rising falsetto is just incredible. Even though Tamino-Amir sings in English, his music is clearly strongly affected by his Egyptian roots. In songs like Each Time, and So It Goes, the Arabic instruments infused with his western style have resulted in a wonderful blend. In fact, the singer recorded the songs, So It Goes and Sun May Shine with a Brussels-based orchestra made up of Arab refugees from Iraq and Syria.

"It was a conscious decision to record with an Arabic orchestra on some songs in order to emphasise it,” Tamino-Amir told the BBC. “The sound is so beautiful, they bring such greatness to it, this almost royal sound."

Stumbling upon Tamino-Amir is by far the highlight of our week. We’ve no clue where has he been all these years, but we hope he gains popularity in Egypt soon. This is the kind of talent that deserves its voice to be heard; no wonder the BBC dubbed him “The New Sound of The Nile” and The Independent compared him to Jeff Buckley!

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By Nadine Arab