Egyptian singer: Israelis steal our tunes

Popular singer Amr Mostafa claims Israeli artists copy Arabic songs without permission; says act constitutes 'institutionalized theft of Egypt's musical identity, culture'

Roee Nahmias |Published: 12.31.10 , 15:01

Musical Incident – During a guest appearance in popular TV show "Masr El-Naharda," renowned Egyptian musician Amr Mostafa accused Israeli artists of copying songs from Arab composers without permission.

One of the accused artists was Lior Narkis, who according to Mostafa stole the melody of his 2007 song "Lamastak" and used it in his own song titled "Eten Lach Shanim."

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The Composers and Authors Society credited Narkis' song to an "unknown Arab tune," but following the accusations, Narkis told Ynet on Tuesday, "This is a mistake. I will be happy to fix it and vouch that (Mostafa) is indeed the composer of the song.

"I will be even happier if Amr Mostafa agrees to write me an original song," he said.

During his TV appearance, Mostafa compared his video and those of artists such as Etti Biton, Moshik Afia and Narkis.

He described the act as an "institutionalized theft of Egypt's musical identity and culture."

The popular Egyptian singer assigned blame to Arab record companies, which he claimed exploited the local artists' royalties by selling them to other countries such as Turkey and Spain.

This, he argued, created a loophole that allowed artists worldwide to rob local musicians of their royalties.

"I call all artists to safeguard our culture, for the sake of our country," he said in the interview, adding "These are not Egyptian companies, but foreign companies – therefore I urge all composers to nullify contracts that cede their rights on royalties to the record companies."

When asked if only Israeli artists use Arabic songs without permission, Mostafa said, "For lack of time I didn’t bring more examples. I have 99 songs that have been translated all over the world. This issue is not just in Israel, but also in Turkey, Spain, France, England and the United States."