Modest attendance at the first singing competition rounds among the youth teams in Cairo

Private-Al-Jazeera Net

In the Garden Square in New Cairo, four youth singing teams from Egyptian universities competed to present their songs, including a youth team from Alexandria presenting his songs for the first time outside his city, in front of hundreds of young people in the first rounds of the lyric competition that will continue during February and March.

The transfer of the ceremony to the family garden on the Suez Road had caused the absence of many of those who bought its tickets, because of the great distance from the center of Cairo (about 30 km), the presence of the party did not exceed a few hundred young people. And the telecommunications company that organized the ceremony announced that it was transferred in the last moments due to security reasons.

The concert, known as the "Battle of the Bands", was scheduled to take place in the Freedom Park opposite the Egyptian Opera House in central Cairo, starting from Friday, to compete in it by four teams in each round of it. Each team sings half an hour in which it tries to win Public vote.

Each tour ends with the singing of one of the famous singers, where Ghalia Ben Ali performed a concert yesterday, and the compulsory track team performs the second concert on February 21, and next March the Downtown team presents the third concert, and in the fourth concert the Autostrad team, while the final concert is held In the competition next April.

The songs presented by the teams in the first days of the competition varied between authentic songs written and composed by the singing teams, and between the re-singing of contemporary and classical Egyptian and Western songs, and the rai team also presented songs for the famous Algerian singer Cheb Khaled, the team that decided the first round of the lyrical race after its victory By public vote.

The organizers did not announce more details about the "security reasons" that caused the ceremony to be moved in the last hours, but the security decision appears to be due to the concert coinciding with the anniversary of the January 25, 2011 revolution, as central Cairo continues to witness an intense presence of the security forces Egyptian.

Tunisian singer Ghalia Ben Ali revived the last paragraph of the concert, introducing a set of old and modern songs, including a new song dedicated to Egypt, describing herself as the Egyptian artist tonight.

The anger of the masses
The decision to transfer the ceremony sparked the discontent of those who bought the tickets, and the interaction of the pioneers of the communication websites, condemning the sudden decision due to the distance and bearing additional costs to reach the venue of the ceremony.

While the audience asked the party on the communication sites to retrieve the price of tickets (12 pounds per ticket), due to the lack of transportation to the new place or the high cost, others have defended the organizer's decision that it is beyond its control.