c. 1933 -
One of the Arab world's most popular modern singers.
Fayruz (also Fairouz) was born Nuhad Haddad in Lebanon in approximately 1933. In the early 1950s, after several years of singing in Radio Lebanon's choir, she began to collaborate artistically with the brothers Asi (1923 - 1986) and Mansur al-Rahbani (1925 - ). She married the latter in 1954. The vast majority of the hundreds of songs that she sang during the first thirty years of her career were written and composed by the al-Rahbani brothers. Most of them were written for her, and the al-Rahbani brothers' folkloric musical theater extravaganzas - works such as Jisr al-Qamar (The moon's bridge, 1962) and Bayya al-Khawatim (The ring seller, 1964) - were staged at the Baʿalbak Festival beginning in 1959 and eventually at a variety of venues throughout Lebanon and the Arab world.
The annual Baʿalbak Festival evolved into a mixture of local and international avant-garde and folkloric acts. The al-Rahbanis' plays, which became more extravagant and operatic as the 1960s progressed, were in large part vehicles for Fayruz's talent. In light of the civil violence of 1958, these works, performed in the site's spectacular ancient Roman ruins, contributed to the effort by the country's Christian political elite to unify a diverse population cobbled together after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I.
All of Fayruz and the al-Rahbani Brothers' plays were broadcast repeatedly on local television and radio. Three were made into feature films, including one by the Egyptian director Yusuf Shahin. In addition to songs from the plays, Fayruz's numerous recordings also contain tunes from her pre-theater career on radio and from her live concerts, as well as Christmas carols and liturgical hymns. In addition to songs by the al-Rahbani brothers, she also sang songs written or composed by Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, Saʿid Aql, Tawfiq al-Basha, al-Sayyid Darwish, Juzif Harb, Jubran Khalil Jubran (also Kahlil Gibran), Zaki Nasif, Nizar Qabbani, alAkhtal al-Saghir, and Filmun Wahba.
In an age when songs in the Egyptian dialect dominated regional markets, Fayruz and the alRahbani brothers were credited with popularizing a distinctly Lebanese idiom. However, at the beginning of their collaboration they often performed Latin-style dance tunes and waltzes, and much of their music depended on nonindigenous instruments, such as the piano, and non-Eastern techniques, such as harmonization.
Due to radio and to recording technologies, increased emigration, and her and her composers' use of diverse musical styles, Fayruz's fan base rapidly transcended Lebanon's borders. In addition to working for Radio Lebanon, Fayruz and the al-Rahbani brothers sang and recorded for the British Near East Radio, Radio Damascus, and Gamal Abdel Nasser's influential Voice of the Arabs. It was at the latter organization's behest in 1955 that the al-Rahbanis and Fayruz recorded the Palestinian resistance song "Rajiʿun" (We shall return).
After the Arab defeat in the war of June 1967, Fayruz and the al-Rahbanis's songs and musical theater works became more urban in theme and setting. What remained consistent, however, was the contrast between their theatrical representations of a unified Lebanon - usually embodied in miraculous solutions to conflict offered by Fayruz's character - and the increasing sectarian tension, which culminated in the outbreak of a protracted Lebanese civil and regional war in 1975.
Shortly after the outbreak of war, the artistic trinity fell apart with the divorce of Asi and Fayruz. During the war and since its end, Fayruz has worked extensively, albeit not exclusively, with her son Ziyad al-Rahbani (1956 - ). Although this collaborative effort resists simple categorization, it has been characterized - for example, on records such as Kifak inta? (How are you? 1991) - by jazzy orchestration and relatively sensual lyrics. This shift has not prevented Fayruz from continuing to sing old alRahbani standards, many of which have been reorchestrated, sometimes ironically, by Ziyad, such as those on the record Ila Asi (To Asi, 1995). Whatever the style, period, or medium, Fayruz and her voice have consistently been considered symbols of freedom and unity, not just for the Lebanese, but for all Arabs.
Bibliography
Fairouz and the Rahbani Brothers. Available at http://www.Fairouz.com.
Fayrouz: Legend and Woman. Available at www.fayrouz.org.
Racy, Ali Jihad. "Legacy of a Star." In Fayruz, Legend andLegacy, edited by Kamal Boullata. Washington, DC: Forum for International Art and Culture, 1981.
— CHRISTOPHER REED STONE
