The Sheikh Imam Cultural Club is a UK-registered non-profit dedicated to keeping Sheikh Imam's songs alive as a living practice: sung, studied, reinterpreted, archived, and shared across a growing community. We founded this Club in the same spirit as the clubs that arose in Cairo, Tunisia and around the Arab world and diaspora, communities that turned Imam's music from memory into ongoing, collective practice, and we see our work as one more link in that same continuing chain. Our activities unfold across six interconnected strands, each carrying forward a different part of Imam's legacy while feeding into the others.
Singing And Performance
At the Club's core is collective singing, regular, informal gatherings where newcomers and longtime singers alike build repertoire and confidence together, echoing the same circles that first carried Imam's songs from place to place in Cairo. Imam Nights extend this into concerts and themed evenings that place his music in its historical and political contexts, while opening the door to new arrangements, compositions, and creative formats that keep his songs continuously evolving.
Research And Musical Transcription
Traces of Imam is our living digital library, gathering playlists, documentaries, interviews, scholarship, and the Club's own developing work into one accessible hub for anyone studying or writing about Imam. Transcribing Imam complements this by building a written score archive for a repertoire that has survived almost entirely by ear until now.
Building A Directory & A Global Community
Imam's Global Network connects the singing circles, listening sessions, and fan communities that have taken root in cities from Cairo to Tunisia to Paris into a single, mutually supportive directory, extending the same spirit of Imam legacy to a worldwide scale. Together with our other strands, this network reflects the Club's core belief: that Imam's songs remain an open, participatory tradition, and that anyone with an idea, a skill, or simply a love of the music has a place in shaping what comes next.
Get involved by reaching out at contact@sheikhimam.com or through our Contact page, reach out to us, whether you want to host a singing session, propose a concert theme, contribute research or archive material, connect your local group to the network, or help transcribe a song.