The Relentless Pursuit of Everything <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dina Helmy is a singer, artist, and student at the American University of Sharjah. Originally from Egypt, her passion for music has taken her from recording videos in her bedroom to performing on stage.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n By Myia Hamed <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I ever chose singing,\u201d says Dina Helmy, leaning back as if trying to catch her thoughts midair. \u201cIt just kind of chose me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cairo Opera House glowed like a jewel the night she first sang there. She was barely six, dressed in a pink satin dress, clutching the microphone with tiny fingers. Her classmates from Baby Home School stood behind her, ready to perform, but Dina had been chosen for three solos: one in English, two in Arabic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was the biggest thing ever,\u201d she remembers with a laugh. \u201cI was so small, and suddenly they were telling me I\u2019d sing at the Opera House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The moment her voice carried across the grand hall, something shifted. The applause that followed wasn\u2019t just for a song; it was for a spark being born. \u201cThat was it,\u201d she says. \u201cThe first-time people noticed me for something I didn\u2019t even know I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At home, the stage transformed into a living room. She borrowed her mother\u2019s old flip phone and commanded her imaginary audience: \u201cGood evening, everyone, I\u2019m your host tonight!\u201d Her topics? \u201cOh, random things!\u201d she laughs. \u201cFashion, dieting, marriage advice, like, actual marriage advice. I was seven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her mother humored her, filming those mock talk shows with patience. \u201cI don\u2019t think many people know that side of me,\u201d Dina says, eyes glinting. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved being on camera. I loved talking, performing and making something out of nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That childlike playfulness became an early form of creativity. As she grew older, she started tinkering with editing apps, learning how to color, cut and stitch videos together the same way some kids learned to draw. \u201cWhen I played online games, I started editing videos from them,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s actually how I learned software like Picsart, Final Cut Pro and iMovie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n YouTube became her new stage. Inspired by British creator Zoella, Dina began uploading makeup tutorials, game edits and singing covers. \u201cMy dad was like, don\u2019t show your face!\u201d she recalls, rolling her eyes affectionately. \u201cSo, at first, I only filmed my hands or piano keys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she finally turned the camera toward herself, she discovered something bigger than performance connection. \u201cPeople liked my videos. I\u2019d get messages saying my singing made their day better. I felt seen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She kept posting throughout high school, her confidence growing with every upload. By graduation, she sang live again, this time not as a little girl, but as a young woman who\u2019d built her own platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, university came, new country, new faces and a sudden quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere was a talent show,\u201d she says after a pause. \u201cI sang my heart out, but no one really appreciated it. I felt discouraged. That moment made me stop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her father still reminds her of it. \u201cHe always says, you stopped singing because of those people,\u201d she smiles. \u201cMaybe he\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, her music exists in fragments shared in living rooms, car rides and nights out with friends. \u201cIf the environment feels right, I\u2019ll sing,\u201d she says softly. \u201cBut not for people who don\u2019t care. It has to mean something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What replaced performance was storytelling. A writing class at university changed everything. \u201cMy professor, Randa, told me, you\u2019re a writer. It sounds simple, but it stuck.\u201d Two days before registration closed, Dina decided to pursue an extra path, crying through the chaos but following her gut. \u201cNow I\u2019m minoring in journalism,\u201d she says, almost proudly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Writing, she says, feels like another form of voice. \u201cWhether I\u2019m singing or writing, I\u2019m still expressing something. It\u2019s still me, just in a different key.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Dina Helmy, art has never been about the audience. It\u2019s about the act; the honesty of saying something out loud, even when no one claps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Somewhere between the Cairo Opera House and a quiet room, between the little girl with a plastic microphone and the writer finding her voice again, she\u2019s still performing. Not always in song, but always with soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Relentless Pursuit of Everything Dina Helmy is a singer, artist, and student at the American University of Sharjah. Originally from Egypt, her passion for music has taken her from recording videos in her bedroom to performing on stage. By Myia Hamed \u201cI don\u2019t think I ever chose singing,\u201d says Dina Helmy, leaning back as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[82,32,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-5390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-features","8":"tag-aus-campus","9":"tag-campus","10":"tag-leisure"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdcmediahub.aus.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}