Mahmoud Abdulaziz (, 16 October 1967 – 17 January 2013,

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum is the capital city of Sudan as well as Khartoum State. With an estimated population of 7.1 million people, Greater Khartoum is the largest urban area in Sudan. Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flo ...

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

) also transcribed as Mahmoud Abdel Aziz and affectionately known as ''Elhoot'' or ''Al-hoot'' (''The Whale''), was a popular Sudanese singer-songwriter. Called "Sudan's idol of the youth”, he was a central figure for Sudanese music fans, opposing the military government of the day.

Life and artistic career

Mahmoud Abdulaziz was born in the

Bahri Bahri () is a masculine Arabic given name. Given name People with given name are include: * Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin (1957–2007), Turkish artist * Bahri Tanrıkulu (born 1980), Turkish taekwondo athlete *Bahri Fazliu, Kosovo Albanian poet, publi ...

district of

in 1967, and died in hospital in

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in January 2013. His music was a blend of modern urban music from Sudan and

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pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

, with occasional other African influences. Even though his songs were banned on Sudan's national television and radio during the years of

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

-inspired ''Public Order Laws'', when many singers, artists and politicians had to flee the country, because of conservative religious intolerance against popular music, Abdulaziz stayed in Sudan and continued to perform, risking arrest. At the time of his death, he had become a symbol for those wanting a more secular and less repressive Sudan. Abdulaziz recorded more than 30 albums, widely available in Sudan on cassette tapes or bootleg CDs. Several of the many

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with his music have more than one million views. An example for his great popularity is the attendance of several tens of thousands of his fans at the fourth anniversary of his death in Khartoum in January 2017.

Trivia

During a concert, a disabled fan, who could not get as close to the stage as he would have wanted, sought to catch the attention of his idol, and started waving his hands. This worked, and Abdulaziz mimicked his movements, and also came to greet the fan. Later, it became habitual for the artist to greet his devoted fans in this way, at every concert. Subsequently, crossed arms with index fingers pointing outwards became his symbol, and was in turn taken up by other fans. Even on his deathbed, Mahmoud was photographed in this pose.

Select Discography

;Albums * 1994: ''Khalli Balak'' * 1995: ''Sakat Al-Rabab'' * 1996: ''Jawab lilbalad'' * 1996: ''Seb enadak'' * 2001: ''qaed al istul'' * 2002: ''Fi bali'' * 1998: ''lahib alshoug'' * 2000: ''Noor Alain'' * 2000: ''alaa alnajeela'' * 2000: ''ma tishly ham'' * 2001: ''ash man shafak'' * 2001: ''bartah liek'' * 2002: ''Shail Jarrah'' * 2002: ''Aktubi eli'' * 2003: ''adaat sanna'' * 2005: ''marat alayam'' * 2005: ''saab albalad'' * 2005: ''Khof alwajaa'' * 2007: ''Alhaneen'' * 2008: ''ya zoul ya tieb''

References

External links

Mahmoud Abdulaziz discography
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

YouTube mix list

Facebook fan page

Obituary in Arabic about Mahmoud Abdulaziz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdulaziz, Mahmud 20th-century Sudanese male singers 1967 births 2013 deaths 21st-century Sudanese male singers

Life and artistic career

Trivia

Select Discography

See also

References

External links