Tamer Hosni Exclusively to Arabstoday: Why I knew Basma was the one

Egyptian superstar Tamer Hosni expressed his joy over the colossal amount of congratulatory comments received after announcing his marriage to Moroccan singer Basma Boussil. He thanked fans for all the love and well wishesleft on his Facebook page and was overwhelmed by the response. In an exclusive interview with Arabstoday, he told us: “I’ve always felt a special spark with Basma from the day I met her. This increased every time we met and eventually led me to declare my love to her. She felt the same so I proposed and we held our Katb el-Kitab (civil marriage ceremony) in the States this May. Many reports previously published stated Tamer had wed in secret to which he replied: “Marriage in my eyes is something that should be public and shared with everyone so I could have never allowed myself to marry in secret. When these rumoursspread, I clarified the truth with your website. The reason I initially hid this announcement was due to the sensitive situation in Egypt. However, I do also believe that there should be some level of privacy — when I talk to the media it should be limited to my work, be it about a song, an album or concert. Discussing my private life to the extent of it becoming false rumours is too intrusive and insensitive.” As for announcing his marriage through a video on his official page on Facebook, the Egyptian star said:“I wanted to surprise my fans, which is why I opted for this method. The number of fans on the page is around four million so I consistently use this mechanism to speak to my fans on a personal level and publish all the latest news exclusively for them.” Tamer also expressed his happiness for the success of his latest song "Ebdaa Be Nafsak" (Start With Yourself) which was highly popular during Ramadan. The Egyptian superstar disclosed the reasons for making this song, saying: "Every Egyptian citizen should attempt to search for the greatness that is inside them. It was predominantly this thought that helped me think of this song as I truly believe that the Almighty will not be mercy and fair to us unless we achieve social justice on earth.” He concluded: "Unfortunately, I can sense envy everywhere. There is a state of doubt and mistrust that controls a large class of the Egyptians. This certainly does not satisfy the Almighty and I think that if everyone tries to reform themselves, peace and fairness will then prevail.”