Iconic Singer Samir El Eskandarany Dies at 82

Egyptian iconic singer Samir El Eskandarany has died on Thursday at the age of 82, after a struggle with illness.

El Eskandarany passed away at the new Nozha Hospital, due to health complications, resulted from kidney failure, and undergoing two surgeries.

The iconic singer funeral prayer is set to be held after Zuhr prayer at Al-Sayeda Nafeesah Mosque, where he is set to be buried afterward in his family's cemetery in Al-Muqattam.

In a statement, the head of Musicians' Syndicate, Hany Shaker, mourned El Eskandarany, stating that the late artist is one of the artistic icons that presented an artistic heritage that will be preserved for generations to come, and a national patriot.

Shaker added that the iconic singer is immortalized by the records of the Egyptian intelligence, and throughout his artistic career as he presented dozens of distinct songs.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="648"] Samir El Eskandarany with John Travolta[/caption]

El Eskandarany was born on February 8, 1938, in El Ghoury neighborhood, Cairo. He joined the Faculty of Fine Arts before traveling to Italy on a scholarship.

He also excelled in singing in several languages. El Eskandarany was famous for performing, "Silver Nile", "Take me back to Cairo", "Whoever Said", "Whoever Live Your Love Knows", and "Oh Lord of My Country and My Beloved", and others.

He attracted the attention of a young Egyptian man with Jewish roots with his outgoing personality and ability to speak five languages. He offered him to be recruited to collect information from inside Egypt in return for a large sum of money.

El Eskandarany agreed and was trained in espionage and correspondence by secret ink and wireless communication.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="278"] Samir El Eskandarany[/caption]

Upon his return to Egypt, he informed the Egyptian intelligence and subsequently met the late President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was settled that El Eskandarany would play the role of Israel's spy inside Egypt.

During his tenure as a double spy, he was able to uncover a number of espionage plans inside Egypt, including the attempt to assassinate Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer and the long-term poisoning plan of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

After more than a year and a half, the Egyptian intelligence managed to monitor through him, the location of the Dutch spy Moise Judd Sward, who was arrested as well as exposing an entire spy network inside Egypt.