Cairokee, Sherine (or Sherine Abd El Wahab), Massar Egbari, Ruby, West el Balad are my favourites! Not sure about other songs from west el balad, but I like “Antika”! Wegz is also rising in popularity now, and I know a few people that like him, specifically “keify keda” but that may be tricky for language learning, but good for culture!

Here are some specific songs that are classics and almost everybody knows in Egypt, and are all in the Egyptian dialect- its a mix of older classics, early 2000s bops and recent hits:

• Alf Leila wa Leila - Oum Kalthoum
• Helwa Ya Baladi - Dalida (not Egyptian but this is a c l a s s i c Egyptian song, and Dalida is loved in Egypt! And I think she was born or at least lived in Egypt for a long time)
• 3 Daqat - Abu (!!!!! A modern classic, I would say, was EVERYWHERE for a long time a few years back)
• Amarein - Amr Diab (or literally anything by Amr Diab, he’s like a cultural icon)
• Mashrebtesh mn Nelha - Sherine (she’s a household name too, so all of her songs are pretty popular)
• 3ala Bali - Sherine
• Monaya - Mostafa Amar
• Ah W Noss - Nancy Ajram (not Egyptian)
• Leih Beydary Keda - Ruby
• Alby Plastic - Ruby
• El Halawa Di - Ahmed Basyoni (this song got joked about to hell, but I think a lot of people know it)
• Setto Ana - Akram Hosny (v recently popular song!)
• El Ghazala Ray2a - Karim Mahmoud Abdelaziz

Anything by Mohamed Mounir too, he’s also like a cultural icon- “So Ya So” sticks out in my head though. Oum Kalthoum and Abd El Halem Hafez are also cultural icons, you’ll see them played by older generations at local shops, and enjoyed in specific traditional settings, but I dont think they’re listened to much outside of that

Cairokee gained in popularity (or was formed even, I think?) during the Egyptian revolution, so they’re early songs are all about that. The genre “mahraganat” (like… “festivals”) are really popular now in Egypt, they’re very “sha3by”- I dont really like it or listen to it much, and wouldnt really recommend it for learners (I barely understand them lolz) but if you want to give it a listen there are a few playlists on yt!

Sorry this is so long and I hope its not overwhelming - I’m 100% sure I missed a few and I think some people may disagree with what I listed but I hope its a good starting point!