El Helwa Di was composed by Sayed Darwish (1892-1923). Born in Alexandria, Egypt to a working-class family, he was sent to a religious school as his family could not afford to pay for his education. He was trained to become a recite the Quran, and gained the title of Sheikh which is given to a man with advanced knowledge of Islam.

He went on to study at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, but left after two years to pursue a music career. He enrolled to a music school and studied under Sami Effendi who always encouraged him to go further into the music field. It was during this time where he trained to be a munshid (منشيد), or a poetry reciter.

To support his family, he worked as a bricklayer at first to contribute to their finances. He also kept his passion for music alive by singing in cafés in his spare time. His talent was discovered by the manager of a theatrical company who heard him singing while he was working to entertain his colleagues. He was invited to join the troupe in Syria, which he accepted.

In his time in Syria, Sayed studied Arabic classical music under the tutelage of Othman Al-Mawsily .

He returned to Egypt to attempt to build a successful career in music in his homeland. In 1912, he composed El Helwa Di, which is considered to be his first hit. He moved to Cairo in 1917 where he met Salama Higazy who introduced him to the theatre.

This started Sayed's career in theatrical and operatic works. He found a lot of success in theatre, so much so that he was able to start his own theatre company in 1921.

Aside from theatre, Sayed was also involved in the Egyptian revolution in 1919, where the country rose against British rule in Egypt and Sudan. He composed patriotic works such as Um Ya Masry (قوم يا مصرى) (Rise, Egyptians), and also Biladi, biladi, biladi (بلادي، بلادي، بلادي) (My country, my country, my country). The latter went on to become the national anthem of Egypt in 1979. His operettas had overt political undertones and were popular because of the political climate of the time, as well as how he used folk-style melodies to reach out to the people.

Sayed tragically died at the height of his career in 1923 at the age of 31. He left behind a legacy of 260 songs, 26 operettas as well as 10 dawr and 21 muwashahat which are considered firmly part of Arabic classical repertoire today.