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Klaxics is the largest A Cappella ensemble in Egypt, a one-of-a-kind project that anyone can apply to become part of irrespective of age, background or even previous musical experience.
To present classical and contemporary songs in Egyptian dialect, the ensemble uses A Cappella: a classical art of singing that relies solely on human voices rather than musical instruments to make music. Watch the ensemble’s releases to date:
The ensemble won the first prize of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s Summer Festival Contest 2021, the Cultural Resource “Wijhat” grant in 2020, the Gemini Africa and Wasla Incubation Awards in 2022 and the Garage El-Mahrousa incubator award in 2023.
WHAT DOES “KLAXICS” MEAN?
Klaxics (or Kalaxkeyat in Arabic) is a portmanteau between the two words “klaxon” and “classics”. It represents the main purpose of the project which is introducing classical arts to Egyptians who are surrounded everyday with noisy Klaxons and loud music and involving talented non-professionals in classical singing.
GOALS
- Introducing A Cappella and classical arts in their mother tongue and a relatable context for Egyptians audience.
- Fighting cultural elitism by introducing classical renditions of pop songs and involving talented non-professionals in classical singing.
- Changing common perception on classical arts in Egypt (irrelevant to the culture, hard to perform, only for special audience…etc.)
INTERESTING FACTS
- Klaxics is the first and only Egyptian A Cappella ensemble led by a female musician.
- Dalia arranges and writes the music notations for different voices in A Cappella, trains the vocalists and sings as a mezzo-soprano.
- All of the ensemble’s members, including the founder, are self-taught musicians of different professional backgrounds.
- Members’ age groups are between 12-60 years. They all have equal singing roles and responsibilities in managing the ensemble’s operations regardless of age.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
KLAXICS’ FIRST WORKSHOP AND PERFORMANCE IN ALEXANDRIA
In cooperation with the Jesuit Cultural Center in Alexandria, Klaxics ensemble presented its first workshop and performance in Alexandria in July 2023 with 29 participants including the ensemble members and Alexandrian participants who were selected among a large number of applicants to join the workshop.
During the 3-day workshop, participants practiced singing A Capella (making music with the human voice only without instruments) and joined the ensemble in the performance that was held on the fourth day. Their contribution was in one of the ensemble’s songs arranged by Dalia specifically in celebration of the team’s first performance in Alexandria: “Wa Ammar Ya Alexandria” (Viva Alexandria) by the composer Ammar Al-Shari’i with lyrics by Ahmed Fouad Negm. Watch the song’s video here:
It is noteworthy that this is the ensemble’s second visit to Alexandria, as it won the first prize in 2021 in the “Naghama Horra” (Free Tone) competition for underground bands held by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina as part of the Summer Festival. Check our these photos from the workshop and performance:
KLAXICS’S SOLIDARITY VIDEOS WITH PALESTINE EXCEED 1 MILLION VIEWS DESPITE SOCIAL MEDIA RESTRICTIONS
In solidarity with the genocide in Gaza, Klaxics released 3 songs between October 2023 and January 2024. Watch Ya Tal3een El-jabal (Palestinian folklore) that achieved more than 500K views organically:
The second song was “Sheddo Ba3edkom”. Watch it live from a TV show with an introduction by Dalia on how she paid tribute to Tiktok for being the most ‘fair’ platform for Klaxics videos:
First rehearsal of Tahya Palestine (Arabic rendition of the Swedish song “Leve Palestina”):
KLAIXCS’ FIRST SONG IN MODERN STANDARD ARABIC CELEBRATING THE ARABIC LANGUAGE MONTH 2022
The United Nations celebrates the month of December every year as a month for the Arabic language. In 2022, Klaxics released its first song in classical Arabic. The ensemble chose the “Once Upon a December” from the movie “Anastasia” which exceeded a quarter of a million views on Facebook in less than a month:
FIRST PRIZE WINNER IN BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRINA’S SUMMER FESTIVAL COMPETITION
In August 2021, Klaxics won the first prize in “Naghama horra” competition for underground bands and ensembles against 4 other competing bands from Alexandria. Klaxics was the only classical ensemble in the competition and performed 4 songs on stage to the audience of Alexandria for the very first time. Watch behind the scenes and on-stage photos:
Jury’s head, Egyptian renowned soprano Neveen Allouba, praised Dalia’s work (that includes vocal arrangement and training) and the overall performance of the vocalists (some of which were recent participants of Klaxics’ workshops) in this video:
WINNER OF THE WIJHAT PROGRAM GRANT FROM CULTURE RESOURCE
Kalxics won a grant from Wijhat program affiliated to the Culture Resource. Members of the team traveled to Lebanon to attend training with Fayha choir. Ahead of this trip, Dalia traveled alone to receive intensive choir leadership training in several Lebanese cities. Watch glimpses of Dalia’s training as a choirmaster:
KLAXICS FIRST WORKSHOP – APRIL 2018
44 participants sang “Inaudible words”; the first-of-a-kind song to promote for social inclusion of the deaf and hearing-impaired. The lyrics were co-written by Dalia and Maram Osama and Dalia arranged it for A Cappella based on “Ode To Joy” music from the 9th symphony for Beethoven (which he composed after being almost deaf). Dalia chose it for the powerful subtle message of what the deaf and hearing-impaired can offer to the world and humanity. This song was chosen to participate in the Global Ode To Joy initiative to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday. It was the only Egyptian and Arabic song among the entries from more than 70 countries. Check the audience reaction here and photos from the workshop here!
Participants’ testimonials:
KLAXICS FOURTH WORKSHOP – SEPTEMBER 2021
This workshop was one of the most unique workshops. For the first time, the team produced a medley of songs for the great musician Mohamed Fawzy who was the first Egyptian musician to introduce A Cappella to the Egyptian music scene with the song “Kallemni Tammenni” in 1956. Watch the song from here:
WORKSHOP FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN FROM 4 COUNTRIES ON THE OCCASION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2022
In celebration of women’s Month, in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt, Dalia gave a workshop that included klaxics members and 7 inspiring women and girls from Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Eritrea. Dalia trained them on a medley of 4 songs from the Egyptian, Syrian, Yemeni and Sudanese heritage that she arranged specifically for this project. With the help of Maram Osama, Dalia rephrased parts of the original songs’ lyrics to be more suitable for contemporary girls and women, watch the video:
KLAXICS SECOND AND THIRD WORKSHOP – FEBRUARY AND JULY 2021
Despite COVID-19 challenges, Klaxics second workshop took place with 10 participants who gathered, with physical distancing, for 4 days of extensive training on 4 songs of Dalia’s arrangement. Recording and shooting was supported by “Art for Social Change” program in partnership with DICE and British Council Egypt.
ALI YA ALI
Klaxics version of “Ali Ya Ali” (a popular Egyptian pop song) got more than 3.8 million organic views. Check the audience reaction here!
MAFEESH SAHEB-HABANERA FUSION
Klaxics unique fusion between “Mafesh Saheb Yetsaheb” and Habanera aria (for Bizet). Check the audience reaction here!
“MAKE ME A CHANNEL OF YOUR PEACE” EGYPTIAN COVER
Dalia wrote Egyptian lyrics to the melody of the song “Make me a channel of your peace” and presented it on several occasions with piano accompaniment. Arranging it for Klaxics in A Capella, the song was selected by the International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM) to participate in the World Choral Music Day 2020.
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