Fairuz

One of the greatest voices of the Orient, Lebanese singer Fairuz was born Nouhad Wadie Haddad in Zqaq El Blat, a district of Beirut, on November 21, 1934. Born into a Christian family from Syria who had fled the war, she was noticed for her voice at school and took lessons with Mohammed Flayfel, who trained her at the conservatory. Noticed by Halim el-Roumi, director of the Lebanese state radio station, she was hired as a backing singer, receiving the pseudonym Fairuz ("Turquoise" in Arabic) from him. The brothers Assy and Mansour Rahbani, musicians also hired by the radio station, took an interest in her and put together a repertoire of songs for her. It was the start of a long association that took root at the 1957 Baalbeck International Festival, a showcase for Lebanese culture to which the singer returned in 1959, 1961 and 1962, in shows built around folk songs, from operetta to musical comedy. After a performance at the International Fair of Damascus (Syria) in 1963, Fairuz made her theatrical and film debut in Bayya'a el khawatim (The Ring Seller) by Youssef Chahine, then Safar barlik(Exile), by the Rahbani brothers. With her husband Assy Rahbani, who composed her repertoire, Fairuz multiplied her successful recordings and toured the world, performing on all five continents until they were both hospitalized in 1972. In between appearances at Beirut's Piccadilly Theatre and the Baalbeck Festival, Fairuz sang in the 1974 musical Loulou, then in 1977 in Petra after the civil war. As Assy Rahbani's cerebral condition deteriorated (he died in 1986), their son Ziad Rahbani took over, composing a modern, jazz-oriented repertoire for his mother that proved controversial with each album release: Wahdoun (1979), Maarefti Fik (1987), Kifak Enta? (1991), the tribute Ila Assi (1994) and Mish Kayen Hayk Tkoun (1999). In 2006, the iconic singer of the Arab world returned to Baalbeck to reprise her role in the 1970 musical Sahh Ennom, which she debuted on tour before returning to the studio for the album Eh Fi Amal (2010), followed seven years later by Bebalee.