Entertainment

The ambition of the star of “The Voice” program, Tamer Negm, never stopped him from continuing to try to achieve his dream, by releasing a song that reaped great success and wide spread, and to communicate his beautiful voice in the best way, despite proving his steps in the field of acting.
The art site had a special interview with Tamer Negm, during which he talked regarding his role in the new series “Al-Zaytouna… Kingdom of Night and Love”, regarding his upcoming lyrical works, and regarding the reason for his delay so far in the series.

After your participation in several series, including “Ashab Talata”, “As Your Name” and “Haroub”, tell us regarding your participation in the series “Al-Zaytouna… Kingdom of Night and Love”?

I am very optimistic regarding my role in this series, written by Tony Chamoun and directed and produced by Elie Maalouf, and now we have started working on it.

In this series, you meet several Lebanese actors, including Joe Sader. How would you describe dealing with the work team?

We have not yet met the cast, but as for Joe Sader, he has been my friend for a long time, and I have respect and appreciation for him, and we started watching the series “Asmaa Min Al Madi”, and his performance in it is wonderful.

You embodied the role of “Fadi” in the series “Haroub”, and several scenes brought you together with actress Jesse Abdo. How do you evaluate your work in this series, and how did you deal with Jesse?

​​​My role in the series “Huroub” was simple, and I insisted that I participate in this role, because the series was shown on the “Watch” platform, and this experience interests me, especially with an amazing and very professional team, which is the “Eagle Films” company. Working with Jesse Abdo was special, and I have all the respect for her, and she is a really great actress.

You started your artistic career on “The Voice” program, and you gained great fame. How did your participation in this program affect your artistic career, and you in particular?

It was the best participation in my life, which constituted a real shift for me on the professional and personal levels, and it also contributed to the Arab public getting to know me in particular. “The Voice” is my second experience in talent programs, as I won the silver medal from the “Studio El Fan” program, at which time director Simon Asmar praised my voice and talent, but unfortunately we did not work together because of some problems, and the opportunity they gave me was not enough for my life. Professionalism, so I applied to participate in “The Voice” program, despite the opposition of many who considered that I would go back and start from scratch, especially since I had released two songs, but they did not receive the required success, namely “Put Your Brasak” and “Your Right on Me”, which are two beautiful songs. Very much, but I insisted on participating in the program, and reaped good success.

Thinking of releasing a new song soon?

Of course, I have never been late in searching for new songs, but I do not want to release a song without being 100% sure of it. Frankly, I have worked on more than 15 songs so far, from the words of a friend of mine and from my melodies, but I am waiting until I start with a song. Strong and distinctive, especially since music for me is my whole life.

What song would you like to perform with your voice or sing it back in the cover way?

I love singing “covers” a lot, and I have many experiences with old songs, as well as new ones, and I prefer the Iraqi and Egyptian dialects.

If you are thinking of presenting a lyrical duet, who is the artist you would like to share this work with?

I choose the international artist Beyoncé, because she is a star who will help me get more popularity, and the song will reach more widely.

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Do you think that your beautiful outward appearance can positively affect your artistic career?

Of course, there is no doubt that the external form has an influence, but since my artistic launch until now, I do not depend on the form, and that is why I participated in “The Voice”, because the form has no effect on this program.

We see that you are very interested in your daily looks, are you thinking of entering the world of modeling?

I’m not thinking regarding modeling, despite all the offers I’m getting.

Comedy has a bad press, but I love it. I consider myself an obsessive observer of everyday reality. I am curious regarding social behaviors, individual and group functioning. My own emotional drives overwhelmed by situations that, a priori, might be insignificant.

Writing the play The Red Room I learned to give value to that observation, which was already part of my life. I learned, especially to play with her. To put a magnifying glass on it and exacerbate it to the point of forcing its limits, taking it to hilarious areas, but also disturbing in relation to our behavior in society.

The red room is the first of those three plays that I made and that focus on our functioning as individuals, within a social framework that frames us between rules and institutions. The school is one of them and that is where this work is located.

The characters in The Red Room make up a palette of different archetypes that are quickly identifiable within our groups, but that also have a singularity where they expose their absolutely particular desires, feelings, and needs. Perhaps that is one of the findings of this work, which on the one hand generates a lot of identification, but on the other exposes areas that we usually try to hide or disguise so that they are not seen.

The red room is a small society. There you must agree, vote, decide and live in the midst of differences. And, as in our society, that sometimes happens in peace and sometimes in chaos.

This work shows us the society we are, or the one we might be. And he does it with a lot of humor, because I am certain that through humor, it can penetrate deeply. You can challenge, question and show dark faces. Although, apparently, we are just laughing.

The red room began in an independent theater in 2013. Quickly, word of mouth made the play grow, add performances, move to a larger room, tour Spain and visit festivals.

The surprise was that from various countries they began to ask me for the material and thus made versions in Paraguay, Panama, Brazil and Uruguay. Of course the cultural difference was intriguing. However, precisely with its different views, the work was creating its versions in different parts of the world where these social frictions are also apparently at stake. It is that The Red Room is like a Pandora’s box in which, when the floodgate is opened, the wild side of these characters that might be harmless appears. But they are not. And it seems that we all have that wild side, the point is that we learn to tame it.

With The Red Room, I had the perfect excuse for that to get out of control. It is that “pretending the best” for our sons and daughters we can become capable of anything. That is one of the questions that the play asks: do we want the best for whom? For our little ones or for ourselves?

Celebrating 10 years with La sala roja gives us great joy, emotion and satisfaction for the task accomplished. Undoubtedly, the material has been sustained throughout all this time for its strength, humor and originality. But it has also been sustained by the group that we are. We have worked many times with the wind in favor, but others with the wind once morest. We have gone through good times and also a pandemic; and it was the network that managed to continue supporting a project that belongs to each one of us. The red room is a party in each function, because it overflows with laughter but also overflows with love.

*Director, author and actress of The Red Room.