Al-Ahram Weekly 28 August - 3 September 2003: "Everything we have heard of Iraq and Iraqis recently has had to do with war. And so it was with no little excitement that music lovers and Arabophiles with intellectual pretensions received the news of Ilham Al-Madfa'i's visit to Cairo last week. The Iraqi musician held a number of concerts: at the Cairo Opera House's Open-Air Theatre, at the Citadel's Saha Theatre and the Cairo Jazz Club. Cairenes are not as familiar with Al- Madfa'i's music as their Arab brethren. He is particularly popular among Jordanians and Palestinians, perhaps because he has lived in Amman since the early 1990s. Yet even though Ilham's songs are rarely aired on satellite channels all his Cairo concerts attracted full houses."