Until six months ago, Ramy Essam was a normal student. Then the protest movement that shook Egypt and toppled President Hosni Mubarak transformed him into a hero and one of the most recognised singers of the revolution.
On 11 February, when the crowds at Cairo's Tahrir Square first heard that the Egyptian president had stepped down, a group gathered in front of a makeshift stage. They were poised to listen to a young singer play one of their favourite songs.
The melodic chant had become an anthem of the revolution. "Irhal, irhal" or "leave, leave" they cried, calling for Mr Mubarak to step down.
The performer was a 24-year-old student from Mansoura, in the Nile Delta region, north of Cairo. He had shot to the forefront of the revolution with a collection of songs that captured the fear, optimism and defiant demand for change that was sweeping across the country.
"Irhal" was a song he cobbled together from the protest chants of the revolution's early days. As he stepped up to perform it once again he realised the words were redundant - Mubarak had gone.
He quickly scribbled down new lyrics, changing the cry from "leave" to a demand for the end of military rule.
"I will never forget, there was a mother of a martyr who was with us all the time and she never laughed or smiled," Mr Essam told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.
"It was at that moment when she looked really happy and started smiling because she heard that the words of the song had changed."
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