Who is Fifi Abdo, the belly dancer who features on cover of rapper Wegz’s new single?

Egyptian actress has become popular online among younger generation

Egyptian dancer and actress Fifi Abdo is the star of Wegz's new single. Photo: EPA

One of Egypt’s most popular and influential voices in the Arab hip-hop music scene, Wegz has released a new single titled Ana. The song is true to the rapper's style and voice, and blends elements of traditional shaabi music with modern trap beats.

It has a cover showing a woman sitting on the balcony of a home, listening to the song, dressed in a shiny modern take of the Egyptian Jalabiya (a loose-fitting, traditional garment) styled with vintage gold jewellery.

While the portrait does not seem to have much in common with the track, it was selected as the cover art for a reason. The spirit of the song is greatly influenced by one of the Arab world’s most popular entertainers – the Egyptian dancer and actress Fifi Abdo.

“Fifi Abdo’s dynamic presence and unapologetic attitude make her the perfect embodiment of strength and authenticity,” Wegz said.

Shot by the urban contemporary photographer and portraitist Mohammed Sherif, the artwork for the single is a candid but stylised photograph of Abdo in one of her characteristic poses and expressions. Wegz teased the release of Ana to his more than four million followers on Instagram and three million subscribers on YouTube with a short video of Abdo at the photo shoot for the cover art.

The image and Abdo’s styling are meant to appear opulent and flamboyant, mixing a modern sense of glamour with traditional elements of extravagance. It’s a tone and aesthetic consistent with her public persona over the years, one that is considered charismatic and bold – elements that Wegz has fused into his style of music, particularly in his new single.

Who is Fifi Abdo?

Whether familiar with her work or not, you have most likely come across a meme or gif of Abdo on social media. She is one of the few Arab entertainers with a unique and expansive body of work in the region that has also broken into universal contemporary internet pop culture.

Abdo first rose to fame in the early 1970s as a belly dancer. Her unique style, including elaborate costumes and circus tricks as well as her natural charisma and down-to-earth attitude, made her an incredibly popular dancer for almost three decades. While she dabbled with film and television shows in the 1970s, often playing a belly dancer, she started to take on more active roles as an actress in the 1980s.

She starred in the popular film One Woman is Not Enough in 1990 alongside renowned Egyptian actors Ahmed Zaki and Yousra, which tells the story of a journalist’s affair with three different women.

She was also part of the cast of one of the Arab world’s most popular musicals Belt Me Up (to Dance) in 1994, which starred several prominent Egyptian actors including Mohamed Henedy and Hassan Hosny. Abdo played a prominent role and had a notable dance performance. The play follows a poor man who lives with his wife, played by Abdo, and their sons in a small villa that he refuses to sell to developers.

While Abo retired from dancing in the early 2000s, she continued to act in films and television. She starred in popular Ramadan shows including 2003's The Truth and Mirage, 2006's The Green Market and 2018's The Guile of Women.

How Fifi Abdo became an online muse

Over the past decade, Abdo has captured the attention of a younger fan base in the Arab world and abroad, thanks mainly to her active social media. She's done this by posting videos of herself dancing in various locations in Egypt and around the world, and videos talking directly to her fans. She’s accumulated more than eight million followers on Instagram.

Aside from this, many of Abdo’s clips from television dramas and interviews have resurfaced online and gone viral, becoming memes and gifs, which she also shares. Her online popularity surged when Saint Hoax, a Syrian artist, satirist and sociopolitical activist with more than three million followers on Instagram, started using many of her clips as part of his online political commentary.

Wegz isn’t the only artist who has been inspired to capture Abdo’s charisma as part of his work. Acclaimed Egyptian artist and photographer Youssef Nabil, as part of his series of portraits included her as he explored culturally significant Egyptian personalities.

Nabil reinterpreted Abdo's persona in his work where she appears as a belly dancer smoking shisha and as a glamorous actress in diamonds smoking a cigarette.