SULTRY Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe is no stranger to controversy.

The Britney Spears of the Arab world made a name for herself on the Arabic music scene with her signature coquettish pout and tongue-in-cheek songs like Boos al Wawa (Kiss the Boo-Boo) and Ya Ibn al Halal (roughly translated as Hey, Good Little Muslim Boy).

But now, the pop princess is finding herself at the centre of a different kind of scandal after Egyptian lawmakers expressed outrage over allegedly racist lyrics in her new song Baba Fein? (Where’s Daddy?), reported the Los Angeles Times, quoting news reports from the Middle East.

The song, a duet between Wehbe and a young singer who plays her son, is supposed to be a light-hearted lyrical argument revolving around bedtime, with the child at one point singing the line: “Where’s my teddy bear and the Nubian monkey?”

The song has provoked outrage, especially among Nubian Egyptians from the south of the country, who interpreted the lyrics as a racist slur.

Last week, a lawmaker reportedly recommended the People’s Assembly meet with the authorities from the ministries of culture and media to discuss what action to take.

A group of Nubian lawyers announced its intention to sue Wehbe.

The award-winning singer, who was once voted one of the world’s most beautiful people, quickly apologised.

She said the Egyptian songwriter who wrote the lyrics, Mr Mustafa Kamil, told her the Nubian monkey was a popular children’s game and widely known in Egypt.

Insulting

Wehbe has resided part time in Cairo after marrying wealthy Egyptian businessman Ahmed Abu Hashima, and often sings in the local dialect, since Egypt is the largest music market among the Arab countries.

“Everyone is upset,” Mr Sayed Maharous, 49, a Nubian owner of a coffee shop in Cairo, was quoted in the Guardian as saying. Mr Adul Raouf Mohammed, who runs a nearby store, agreed. “To compare a human being to an animal is insulting in any culture.

She has denigrated an entire community of people, and now some of our children are afraid to go to school because they know they will be called monkeys in the playground.”

The row over her song has highlighted a growing sense of communal identity among Nubians in Egypt.

Several Nubian novelists are well-regarded within Egyptian intellectual circles and Nubian singers such as Mohammed Mounir are among the most popular in the country.

But the estimated two million Nubians remain largely invisible on television and film.

This article was first published in The New Paper.