Nouhad Haddad, born November 21, 1935, famously known as Fairuz, is a Lebanese diva. "A cultural icon of Lebanon", her songs are constantly heard throughout the region, and still spark Lebanese national pride.
She was born in Jabal al Arz (Cedar Mountain) to a Christian family, and converted to Greek Orthodoxy when she married Assi Rahbani, one of the two brothers who helped shaping her singing career. She is also the mother of the Lebanese singer and composer Ziad Rahbani and the Lebanese director and photographer Rima Rahbani.
Fairuz is sometimes referred to as Our (Lebanese) Ambassador to the Stars, Neighbor to the Moon, and the Poet of the Voice.
Biography
1935-1950s - The Early Years
Nouhad Haddad, later known as Fairuz, was born on 21 November 1935 in 'Jabal al Arz', Lebanon into a Maronite Christian family. The family later moved into a home in cobblestone alley called 'Zuqaq el Blatt' in Beirut. Living in a single room of a typical Lebanese stone house facing Beirut's Patriarchate school, they shared a kitchen with the neighbors. Her father, Wadi', worked as a typesetter in a nearby print shop and Lisa, her mother, stayed home and took care of her four children, Nouhad, Youssef, Hoda and Amal.
Nouhad was a shy child and did not have many friends at school. However, she was greatly attached to her grandmother who lived in Debbieh (Shuf area), where Nouhad used to spend the summer. Nouhad adored the simple village life. During the day, she helped her grandmother with house chores and fetched fresh water from a nearby water spring. She used to sing all the way to the spring and back. In the evening, Nouhad used to sit by the candle light with her grandmother who used to tell her stories from her voyage to the United States.
By the age of ten, Nouhad was already well known at her school for her beautiful voice. Legend goes that Fairuz's parents were said to be too poor to afford a radio, so young Nouhad spent her evenings listening to her neighbors' radio through the thin walls, thereby developing her amazing musical ear. She would regularly sing during school festivals and holidays. This is how she came to the attention of Mohammed Fleyfel, a well known Lebanese musician and teacher at the Lebanese Conservatory, who happened to attend one of the school's celebrations in February 1950. He was greatly impressed by her voice and performance and advised her to enroll in the conservatory, which she did. At first, Nouhad's conservative father was reluctant to send his daughter to the conservatory; however, he allowed Nouhad to attend classes at the conservatory on one condition, that her brother accompany her. Nouhad's family encouraged her even though they could not afford much, and one day her father surprised her with a radio.
Fleyfel cared for Nouhad's voice in a fatherly way. Additionally, he taught her verses recitation from the Quran (Recitative style known as Tajweed). One day, prominent Lebanese musician and head of the music department at the Lebanese Radio Station, Halim El Roumi (the father of famous Lebanese singer Majida El Roumi) happened to hear Nouhad sing. He was deeply impressed by her voice and noticed that it had a rare flexibility that allowed her to sing both oriental and western modes admirably. At Nouhad's request, El Roumi appointed her as a chorus singer at the radio station in Beirut and composed several songs for her. He chose for her the name Fairuz, which is the Arabic word for turquoise.
A couple of months later, Fairuz was introduced to the Rahbani Brothers, Assi and Mansour, who also worked at the radio station as musicians. The chemistry was instant, and soon after, Assi started to compose songs for Fairuz, one of which was 'Itab (the third song he composed for her), which was an immediate smash hit in all of the Arab world, establishing Fairuz as one of the most prominent Arab singers on the Arabic music scene. Assi and Fairuz were married on January the 23rd 1955, and Fairuz then converted to Greek Orthodoxy (Assi's sect).
Fairuz had four children: Ziad, a musician and a composer, Layal (died in 1987 of a brain stroke), Hali (paralyzed since early childhood after meningitis) and Rima, a photographer and film director.
Fairuz's first large-scale concert took place in 1957 as part of the Baalbeck International Festival (where she was paid 1 Lebanese Pound only, and performed alongside the British prima ballerina Beryl Goldwyn), sponsored by Lebanese president Camille Chamoun. Musical operettas and sold-out concerts followed for years, establishing Fairuz as Lebanon's most beloved singer, and as one of the Arab world's most popular singers.
1960s - The Establishment of a New Star
Fairuz became the "First Lady of Lebanese singing" (Halim el Roumi) during the 1960s. At that period the Rahbani Brothers had written and composed for her hundreds of famous songs, most of their operettas, and 3 motion pictures. In 1969, as popular as it was, Fairuz’s music was banned from radio stations in Lebanon for six months by order of the Lebanese government because she refused to sing at a private concert in the honor of the Algerian president Houari Boumédienne during his visit to Lebanon. Despite that, Fairuz's popularity soared even higher. Fairuz made it clear that she would not sing to any one individual, neither king nor president, but she would always sing to the people.
1970s - International Fame and The Lebanese Civil War
In 1971, Fairuz's fame became international after her major North American tour, which was received with much excitement by the Arab-American and American community and yielded very positive reviews of the concerts.
On September 22, 1972, Assi suffered a brain hemorrhage and was rushed to the hospital. Fans crowded outside the hospital praying for him and lighting candles. After three surgeries, Assi's brain hemorrhage was halted. Ziad Rahbani, the eldest son of Fairuz and Assi, at age 16, gave his mother the music of one of his unreleased songs "Akhadou el Helween" (that he had composed to be sung by Marwan Mahfouz in "Sahriyyi" Ziad's first play) and his uncle Mansour Rahbani re-wrote new lyrics for it to be called "Saalouni n'Nass" (The People Asked Me) which talked about Fayrouz being on stage for the first time without Assi. Three months after suffering the hemorrhage, Assi attended the premiere performance of that musical "Al Mahatta" in Piccadilly Theatre in Hamra Street. Elias Rahbani, Assi's younger brother, took over the orchestration and musical arrangement for the performance.
Within a year, Assi had returned to composing and writing with his brother. They continued to produce musicals, which became increasingly political in nature. After the Lebanese Civil War erupted, the brothers continued to use political satire and sharp criticism in their plays. In 1977, their musical "Petra" was shown in both the Muslim western and Christian eastern portions of Beirut.
In 1978, the trio toured Europe and the Persian Gulf nations, including a concert at the Paris Olympia. As a result of this busy schedule, Assi’s medical and mental health began to deteriorate. Fairuz and the brothers agreed to end their professional and personal relationship in 1979. Fairuz began to work with a production team lead by her son, Ziad Rahbani, and Assi and Mansour composed for other artists such as Ronza.
During the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), Fairuz never left Lebanon to live abroad and did not hold any concerts there with the exception of the stage performance of the operetta "Petra", which was performed in both the Western and Eastern parts of the then-divided Beirut in 1978. However, during that time period, Fairuz held many very successful and record-breaking concerts and tours in numerous countries around the world.
She made her first European TV appearance on French TV on May 24, 1979, in a "Carpentier special show" called "Numero 1" dedicated to French star Mireille Mathieu. She sang one of her big hits "Habaytak Bil Saif" and was thanked and embraced after performing it by Mireille Mathieu.
1980s - A New Production Team
After the artistic divorce between Fairuz and the Rahbani Brothers in 1979, Fairuz carried on with her son, composer Ziad Rahbani, his friend the lyricist Joseph Harb, and composer Philemon Wehbe. Together, Fairuz and Ziad forged new albums that yielded tremendous success reinforcing Fairuz's and the Rahbani's art as evolving art. Fairuz's works with Philimone Wehbe and Zaki Nassif in the 1980s and 1990s were a very repetitive retro style of singing which yielded no musical richness and which were more or less a failure. Philimone Wehbe, a very traditional composer, had composed songs for Fairuz but under the direction and supervision of Assi Rahbani, and so the music of Philimone working alone with fairuz were not up to par. it proved that all: Fairuz, Philimone Wehbe, and Mansour Rahbani were quite mediocre without Assi Rahbani. Only when working with Ziad Rahbani, Fairuz is able to keep the standard of the work she and her husband achieved. Fairuz also attempted to fill the void of Assi Rahbani by singing for Riyad Al Sunbatti, an Egyptian composer who composed Um Kulthum's main songs. These are unlikely to be released.
This success was yet again prominent all over the world and Fairuz made yet again her second and final European Television appearance on French TV on the 13th of October 1988 in a popular show called "Du côté de chez Fred". Fairuz who had scheduled a concert at the POPB of Paris Bercy concert hall three days later on the 16th of October was the main guest of French TV presenter Frédéric Mitterrand, today France's Minister of Culture (2009). This show is to this day considered to be a very rare and exciting archive showing the Lebanese Diva's rehearsals for her concert at Bercy in addition to the ceremony featuring the then French Minister of Culture Jack Lang awarding Fairuz the medal of "Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres" and a video montage of her previous movies and concerts. In that show, Fairuz also sang the three songs "Ya hourrié", "Yara" and "Zaali tawwal".
1990s - Present
In the 1990s, Fairuz produced six albums (two Philemon Wehbe tributes with unreleased tracks included, a Zaki Nassif album, three Ziad Rahbani albums, and a tribute album to Assi Rahbani orchestrated by Ziad) and held a number of large-scale concerts, most notably the historic concert held at Beirut's Martyr's Square in September, 1994 to launch the rebirth of the downtown district that was ravaged by the civil war. She appeared at the Baalbeck International Festival in 1998 after 25 years of self imposed absence where she performed the highlights of three very successful plays that were presented in the 1960s and 1970s.
She also performed a concert at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Arena in 1999 which was attended by over 16,000 Lebanese spectators. Ever since, Fairuz has held sold out concerts at the Beiteddine International Festival (Lebanon) from 2000 to 2003, Paris (2002), the United States (2003), Amman (2004), Montreal (2005), Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Baalbeck, BIEL (2006), Athens, Amman (2007) Damascus, and Bahrain (2008).
Fairuz now works exclusively with her composer son Ziad.
Her latest album, Wala Keef, was released in 2002.
Her 2008 performance in Damascus caused considerable controversy in Lebanon, given the tense relationship between Lebanon and Syria. Several members of parliament publicly asked her to cancel the concert. She went to Syria where she was received by a crowd of 7000 fans, screaming her name at the borders, as her car passed into Syrian grounds. Mosques and prayers on radio were all held back as Fairuz's songs played day and night through almost every media outlet in the Syrian nation. Radio channels, TV channels, the Syrian satellite broadcasters, restaurants and cafes, and newspapers were all focused on Fairuz's legendary return after 20 years absence. However big this controversy was, it seems it has not affected her popularity in Lebanon as she held the Orthodox Good Friday Prayer Mass in West Beirut as hundreds and hundreds crowded the church premises.
Live Concerts
Fairuz has performed once or more in each of many countries around the globe including Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, France, The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Greece, Canada, The United States of America, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and of course, her very own Lebanon.
Fairuz has performed in many venues such as the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1962, the New York Carnegie Hall in 1971, the London Palladium in 1978, L'Olympia de Paris in 1979, London's Royal Festival Hall in 1986, the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles (1971, 1981, and 2003), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. (1981 and 1987) among many others.
Fairuz has yielded record-breaking performances in almost every concert she has held around the world. Fairuz, Assi, and Mansour have become the most famous and dominant music production phenomenon in the Arab world, and their music has spread beyond the Arab world to Europe, the Americas, and Australia.
Of Fairuz's numerous concerts, few are officially released. They are the Damascus 1960, Olympia 1979 concert (audio and video released in the 80's), USA tour 1981, Jarash 1983, Royal Festival Hall London 1986, USA tour 1987, Baalbeck 1998 (Video), Las Vegas 1999 concert (on DVD with make over and rehearsals), Beiteddine 2000 and Dubai 2001 (on DVD, it includes parts from concerts in 1997 and 2002 as well as rehearsals from 2001 and 2002 concerts, released May 2008). Pirated versions of other concerts exist: Kuwait 1966, Syria and Egypt 1976, Olympia 1979, Australia 1984, Syria 1985, Bahrain 1987, France 1988, Kuwait1989, Cairo 1989, London 1994, Beirut 1994, and parts of the four Beiteddine concerts (2000-2003), Parts of Dubai concerts (1990-2006), Paris 2002, Amman 2004, Canada 2005, parts of the play Sah Ennawm which was performed in Beirut (2006), Athens 2007 and Bahrain 2008.
Theatrical Works
Musical plays or operettas were the cornerstone works of the Rahbani Trio, Fairuz, Assi and Mansour. The Rahbani Brothers produced 25 popular musical plays (20 with Fairuz) over a period of more than 30 years. They were possibly the first to produce world-class Arabic musical theater.
The musicals combined storyline, lyrics and dialogue, musical composition varying widely from Lebanese folkloric and rhythmic modes to classical, westernized, and oriental songs, orchestration, and the voice and acting of Fairuz. She played the lead roles alongside singers/actors Nasri Shamseddine, Wadih El Safi, Antoine Kerbaje, Elie Shouayri (Chouayri), Hoda (Fairuz's younger sister), William Haswani, Raja Badr, Siham Chammas (Shammas), Georgette Sayegh and many others.
The Rahbani plays expressed patriotism, unrequited love and nostalgia for village life, comedy, drama, philosophy, and contemporary politics. The songs performed by Fairuz as part of the plays have become immensely popular among the Lebanese and Arabs around the world.
The Fairuz-Rahbani collaboration produced the following musicals (in chronological order):
- Ayyam al Hassad (Days of Harvest - 1957)
- Al 'Urs fi l’Qarya (The Wedding in the Village - 1959)
- Al Ba'albakiya (The Girl from Baalbek) - 1961)
- Jisr el Amar (Bridge of the Moon - 1962)
- Awdet el 'Askar (The Return of the Soldiers - 1962)
- Al Layl wal Qandil (The Night and the Lantern - 1963)
- Biyya'el Khawatem (Rings for Sale - 1964)
- Ayyam Fakhreddine (The Days of Fakhreddine - 1966)
- Hala wal Malik (Hala and the King - 1967)
- Ach Chakhs (The Person - 1968-1969)
- Jibal Al Sawwan (Sawwan Mountains - 1969)
- Ya'ich Ya'ich (Long Live, Long Live - 1970)
- Sah Ennawm (Did you sleep well? - 1970-1971 - 2007-2008)
- Nass min Wara' (People Made out of Paper - 1971-1972)
- Natourit al Mafatih (The Guardian of the Keys - 1972)
- Al Mahatta (The Station - 1973)
- Loulou - 1974
- Mais el Reem (The Deer's Meadow - 1975)
- Petra - 1977-1978
- Elissa - 1979 (Never performed due to the separation of Fairuz and Assi)
- Habayeb Zaman - 1979 (Never performed due to the separation of Fairuz and Assi)
Most of the musical plays were recorded and video-taped. Eighteen of them have been officially released on audio CD, two on DVD (Mais el Reem and Loulou). A pirated version of Petra and one pirated live version of Mais el Reem in black and white exist. Ayyam al Hassad (Days of Harvest) was never recorded and Al 'Urs fi l’Qarya (The Marriage in the Village) has not yet been released (yet a pirated audio record is available).
Discography
Fairuz possesses a large repertoire of around 1500 songs out of which nearly just 800 have been released. She has also been offered prestigious awards and titles over the years (see Fairuz Awards and Recognitions).
Around 85 Fairuz CDs, vinyls and cassettes have been officially released so far. Most of the songs that are featured on these albums were composed by the Rahbani Brothers. Also featured are songs by Philemon Wehbe, Ziad Rahbani, Zaki Nassif, Mohamed Abd El Wahab, Najib Hankash and Mohamed Mohsen.
Many of Fairuz's numerous unreleased works date back to the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s and were composed by the Rahbani Brothers (certain unreleased songs, the oldest of all, are by Halim el Roumi). A Fairuz album composed by Egyptian musician Riad Al Sunbati (who has worked with Umm Kulthum) was produced in the 1980s which are unlikely to be released because they deviate so much from Fairuz's lifetime work with Assi Rahbani. There are also fifteen unreleased songs composed by Philemon Wehbe, which will also not see light as Fairuz was never wholly convinced with Philimon's works in the 1980's when he worked alone without direct supervision from the Rahbanis, and 24 unreleased songs composed by Ziad Rahbani in the 80's.
Fairuz has also released an album on Folkways Records, entitled Lebanon: The Baalbek Folk Festival.
Filmography
Films
Fairuz and the Rahbanis have also had their share of movie production. They produced three films, Biyaa El Khawatem (The Ring Salesman) in 1965 (based on the musical), Safar Barlek (The Exile) in 1967, Bint El Haress (The Guardian’s Daughter) in 1968.
The three films drew large audiences across the Arab world, world theaters, and further introduced Fairuz to the Arab and world audience. These films are released for sale.
Television
Lebanese Television has featured appearances by Fairuz in the following television programs:
- Al Iswari (The Bracelet)
- Day'it El Aghani (Village of Songs)
- Layali As'Saad (Nights of Happiness)
- Al Quds fil Bal (Jerusalem in my Heart)
- Dafater El Layl (Night Memoirs)
- Maa Al Hikayat (With Stories)
- Sahret Hobb (Oriental Evening)
- Qasidat Hobb (A Love Poem), also presented as a musical show in Baalbeck in 1973
Other television programmes have been recorded for Syrian TV, though neither these nor the ones mentioned above are released for sale.
Documentaries
- Fairuz in America - 1971
- Fairuz - 1998
- Alone They Remain - 1998
- Arrab El Maw’ed (Time is Upon Us - 1999)
- We Loved Each Other So Much (We Hielden Zoveel Van Mekaar) - 2003
- Kanit 7kayi - It was a story an interview with Fairuz with clippings of Interviews with Assi for his 23 years memorial - 2009
