Founded by Soha Mohammad Ali and composed by only female Tabla players. These are Egyptian women who are reviving ancient traditional music.
Known for their fiery, passionate, and spirited performances, this set of Egyptian women have been turning heads with the way they revived an ancient style of music centered around drumming. These women revive old songs and also sing songs about women.
The stage curtain is drawn. Women in identically colored costumes sit on seats while holding percussion instruments in preparation for a performance. They are the only singers on stage. After a brief period of engagement and enthusiastic crowd appreciation, the group begins performing on their percussion instruments and singing folklore songs.
This is how the Tablet El-Sitt (Woman's Drum), a beautiful and fiery group of Egyptian female vocalists and percussionists, perform at one of their shows.
Soha Mohamed started the organization in November 2019. Since learning how to dance Shaabi and playing the drums as a young girl, she has been a major fan of Egyptian folk tunes.
Mohamed enjoyed the 1950s female singing group from Egypt called "Fun Trio," which was known for its light social activity. The Fun Trio band introduced a novel style of singing that garnered widespread acclaim. Their songs were and remain lovely, engaging, and classy, and they make for a pleasurable performance. Many of their lyrical compositions received praise for being appropriate for the majority of Egyptian occasions, including weddings, birthdays, and significant events like the month of Ramadan.
Mohamed received drumming instruction from renowned Egyptian drummer Said El Artist, who was instrumental in making Egyptian Shaabi music well-known throughout the world.
Mohamed enrolled in the Academy of Arts under the Culture Ministry, where she studied how to become a skillful singer and instrument player. Her aim was to showcase her talent and spread awareness of that genre of folk song in order to prevent its extinction after learning to sing and play percussion instruments while perform with a group of other ladies who were also singing and playing percussion rather than by herself.
She wanted to organize a team. "When I shared my proposal with my academic colleagues, they were supportive," she said. 'In order to perform simultaneously on percussion instruments and sing, we underwent intensive training," Sola said. Seven singers make up the band, and they play the tambourine, drums, duf, dholak, and finger cymbals. They have 3 male performers in the mizmar, kawala, and rubab.
She purchased percussion equipment and hired a studio. Since most people thought the idea was unusual, they created two movies to show potential venues in order to convince them to hold their performances. They agreed after watching the recorded performance videos. Their first performance took place in November 2019.
Despite the fact that their social media pages are predominantly in Arabic. This group has garnered fans from across the globe. Although this may not sound so controversial, some Egyptians believe that the troupe is infringing on their tradition. A tradition that is meant to be protected by men. But it is 2022 and these women beg to differ. So does their fan base!