Lebanese singer Haifa Wahbi has announced that she is innocent of all recent allegations made by some Egyptian newspapers that she had publicly insulted Egyptians on the Lebanese Broadcasting Company (LBC) popular program “For Those Who Dare Only”. Haifa stressed that the rumors are complete lies and she pleaded to the head of the Egyptian Musician Association, who after watching the episode agreed that the singer did not insult Egyptians in any way.
According to the London based daily, Alsharq Al Awsat, Haifa revealed that during the episode she said what had to be said without crossing the line of appropriateness, but some individuals had twisted her comments to create some commotion to create disputes between her and the Egyptian media, and thankfully they were proven wrong.
Recently, the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Wafid demanded the banning of Haifa from Egypt claiming that she had publicly insulted Egypt and its people. The paper called on the head of the Egyptian Musician Association, Hassan Abu Al So’oud, to take a stance against the singer and work on forbidding her from entering the country, as is the case with many Egyptian singers who are banned from Lebanon for unknown reasons.
The paper stressed there are legitimate reasons for forbidding Haifa, which is insulting Egypt, and she should not be given a permit by the association to hold any performances on Egyptian soil. Haifa’s remarks on the show had caused an outrage to breakout in Egypt.
It was stressed that the singer’s remark that created all the chaos was when she was asked about her opinion towards some of the articles that are published about her in Egyptian newspapers. Haifa’s reply was basically Egyptians should see what they have, referring to seductive singers like Ruby, before criticizing others.
Haifa added that she strongly believes she receives such negative criticism from Egyptians because of the mere fact that Lebanese women are much better looking and know how to dress unlike Egyptians.
These remarks gave rise to a severe attacks by papers that revealed that how can Haifa insult Egypt when her debut was launched from there and how can she talk about Egyptians when her own mother is from Egypt. Al Wafid added that the singer had overlooked the fact that the way she was dressed, which was considered inappropriate by the standards of all Arab countries, including Lebanon.
