The great star Amr Diab topped the lists of the most listened-to artists on the "Anghami" app during 2021, achieving 465 million minutes of listening on the popular music application. In a first-of-its-kind experience, the "Anghami" app allowed users to see the listening figures and percentages of artists based on the total listening minutes throughout the year, rather than just the number of song plays. This evaluation revealed much about the tastes and choices of listeners in Egypt and the Arab world.
The situation was no different for Amr Diab, who also topped the listening lists on Anghami last year according to the number of plays, and this year according to minutes, achieving 465 million minutes of listening. In second place was Mohamed Hamaki with 244 million minutes, followed by rapper Wegz in third with 155 million minutes. The legendary artist Fairouz came in fourth place with 141 million minutes of listening.
Some names entered the top 10 most listened artists on Anghami for the first time, such as Tamer Hosny, who took fifth place with 133 million minutes, followed by Ramy Sabry in sixth with 126 minutes, and Wael Kfoury in seventh with 109 minutes. Nassif Zaitoun came in eighth place with 97 million minutes, and Mahmoud El Esseily in ninth with 97 million, while Nancy Ajram finished tenth with 93 million minutes.
The listening minutes count on Anghami this year appears to reflect a genuine yield of all musical productions released in 2021, impacting the ranking of artists based on their popularity and artistic output. However, the most notable observation about the new calculation method is that it revealed the audience's interest in the songs of Umm Kulthum and Abdel Halim Hafez, despite their passing nearly fifty years ago. The “Lady of the Sun” ranked thirteenth with 84 million minutes, surpassing prominent names from the current generation such as Assala with 72 million minutes and Angham with 52 million minutes.
Abdel Halim Hafez also achieved 36 million minutes of listening during 2021, surpassing many names. The top 10 list had no festival performers at all, and even the top 20 list included only Hassan Shakosh, who came in 18th place with just 73 million listening minutes.
