Cairokee is an Egyptian indie rock band that was officially launched in 2003 but came to prominence with its revolutionary music following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 due to its politically-inspired lyrics and protest songs released following the uprising. 　　 　　Their title song "Ya El Midan", featuring notable Egyptian singer Aida el Ayoubi who had previously retired in the 1990s, ranked number one on Facebook worldwide for downloads and number eight on YouTube with more than half a million views on the video channel in just two days following its internet release. 　　 　　The band consists of lead vocalist Amir Eid, lead guitarist Sherif Hawary, drummer Tamer Hashem, keyboarder Sherif Mostafa, and bass guitarist Adam el-Alfy. The initial band members were friends ever since they were young during their school days and Tamer was already a drummer back then. In 2003, Eid and Hawary had already started an English band initially called Black Star. 　　 　　They started playing cover for English songs with only one Arabic song called "Ghariba" that was highly admired by their audiences. They later decided to continue making Arabic songs because they felt it was shameful to keep playing English music as it wasn't their mother tongue. They were mainly influenced by the works of Pink Floyd and The Beatles and regard Pink Floyd's music as an inspiration for their own musical career.