Tasneem Al Aidy: the graceful musician “Passionate” was the word Tasneem chose when asked to describe herself in one word. A killer voice, a dedicated musician, and a genuine soul with lots of yellow energy. These were the vibes that transcended throughout our phone call. Like most of us, she struggled at first, adapting to utterly staying at home after the hectic life she used to have, but that finally it’s better now and she’s feeling really well.
Music to Tasneem? It’s her one true passion. It holds a very special place in her heart. She has been doing it since she was 8 starting with taking piano lessons her mother recommended as a hobby, singing at 12, and being a professional singer/musician from 17. It’s the major she’s studying at college and the career she would love to do forever. “It’s the only thing I know how to do, I don’t have a plan B.”
Tasneem is also a member of the Let’s Go Big music community, something she’s very grateful for. Not only because of how warm and supportive they are towards each other; people from different backgrounds sharing the same passion and having respect and appreciation towards each other- diversity at its best- but also because of how much she learned from them. One of the things she learned was that she can make money out of music, a huge misconception we all have. “If you invest the time, and invest the effort and have the right connections like Let’s Go Big, there’s definitely a way to make money out of something you love.”
When asked about her proudest moment music-wise, it was performing at the AUC talent show 2019; a performance she received high praise for. She elaborated, “It was the first time I ever get of the stage and I don’t criticize myself.”- another sign coming your way to pat yourself on the back and love yourself more. Al Aidy has been performing long before, from small crowds to larger ones, from open mic nights to TEDx events to AUC talent shows. Surprisingly, she feels less nervous around larger crowds as it’s a sign that more people are coming willingly to hear her sing. She enjoys talent shows a lot; ”Competitions are amazing because you get feedback, you get criticized and constructive criticism is essential.”
I bet if you’re a follower of Tasneem, you’ll know that she’s an avid fan of Beyonce, I mean can we blame her! Tasneem spoke about the power of modern showrooms aka social media and how it contributed heavily to her success; ”90%, definitely!”. She explained how it made it easier than in the past to make connections, apply at places to perform at, and receive offers. She stressed about how we shouldn’t care about social media’s numbers, though. ”It’s quality followers over quantity”. “Stay consistent, definitely!” was her most important tip to aspiring artists to promote themselves. It’s a difficult challenge even Al Aidy agrees and still struggles with sometimes, but it’s guaranteed as hard work and dedication always pays off. I also got to hear more about Tasneem the human away from her career. How her family, boyfriend, and Allah are her source of energy. How her mother is her inspiration, to do everything, and take every step with God in her mind.
On her free days, if there’s nothing on her plates, she’s a night owl. She loves traveling, She has never seen something as beautiful as Egypt, despite seeing lots of countries in the past five years; “Egypt’s something else, it’s amazing”. She is almost done with seeing all of Egypt, something her mom and she have been trying to finish. She speaks with humility and warmness. One of her proudest moments was getting better at coping to change. Although she mostly sings happy upbeat songs, she relates more to heavy emotional indie and R&B songs when writing. Another two things you’d wonder just from watching Tasneem’s feed are her great vibrant sense of style as well as her choice of cover songs. She has been veiled for two years now and, with grace, she addressed how it was never a source of struggle or a limitation towards anything she puts her mind to or dreams of. Her secret is simply putting more effort into her outfits to make sure that her style reflects her personality. She urges all hijabis to look pretty everywhere; inside as well as outside home. As for music covers, She clarified that her choices on Instagram are mainly singing what she feels like and is soothing for her voice. It’s performances that consume more time to pick “the song” with “the lyrics” to sing.
The music scene has been clearly having drastic changes. Al Aidy is definitely impressed and hopeful by the change it’s witnessing, how it’s way much easier to join the music community, how people are appreciating underground artists more, and how diverse does the music scene keep getting. All artists are just expressing music in their own language. However, when it comes to music institutes, that’s where she was unsatisfied. “There aren’t in Egypt good places or very professional.” Something most aspiring artists wrestle with.
Tasneem’s looking forward to getting back on the stage for a performance once the world recovers. We can’t wait, too! She’s currently working on her own EP which will be released by the end of the year, so stay tuned! Surprisingly, despite her utter love for performing, it’s not what Tasneem wants to keep doing in the future, at least not on a big or global scale; “I don’t like the lifestyle, I want to have my family and I want to live next to my family and I want to have time for my people.”
Tasneem aspires to have her own music institute here in Egypt, after graduating and finishing her master’s degree abroad, and mainly teach music; guide others through their journey and implement what she learned; the things she came across that wished to be taught. In fact, she once taught a session at merakieevents regarding stage presence and she enjoyed it! It was a pleasure sitting with such a bright soul. We all wish her more success coming her way as well as happiness!
Writer: Nada Helmy
Editor: Nagla Aly Khalifa
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