Soulful sounds

Fans posted tributes on social to mark the 90th birthday last week of the Arab world’s iconic songstress Fairuz, as Israeli bombs shattered the peace of her homeland. Many hailed her staunch support for Lebanon through one war after another, her refusal to take sides in divisive political infighting, and insistence on national unity.

In an Instagram post, French President Emmanuel Macron stated, “Fairouz is still watching over the hearts of so many Palestinians and Lebanese deprived of the peace they deserve.” In a tribute to “the woman who embodies the soul of this region, a happy birthday.” he said. While in Beirut after the 2020 explosion which devastated Beirut port, Macron visited Fairouz to bestow on her France’s Legion d’Honneur.

Nouhad Wadie Haddad was born during Lebanon’s French mandate on Nov.20, 1934. During her long life she has known poverty and prosperity, obscurity and global fame. She has praised Lebanon’s wonders and wept over its woes. Of refugee stock herself, she has advocated the Palestinian cause, and, through her music, she has introduced the Arab region to peoples across the world.

Her father Wadie Haddad was an Assyrian refugee from Ottoman genocide who worked as a typesetter at a print shop, and her mother Liza al-Boustani was from a modest branch of a prominent intellectual family from the Maronite Christian mountain heartland. Nouhad grew up in one ground floor room in a traditional Lebanese stone house with a kitchen shared with neighbours. As a student, she became renown for her fine voice while singing in school performances. She was nine when Lebanon attained independence from France on Nov.22, 1943.

After attending a concert in 1950, musician Mohammed Flafel, a teacher at the Lebanese Conservatory, urged her to enrol. He trained her voice and proclaimed its suitability for both Arabic and Western music. Lebanese radio chief Halim Roumi employed Nouhad as a chorus singer, gave her solos at 15, and dubbed her “Fairuz” (Arabic for turquoise). While working at the radio she met Assi and Mansour Rahbani. Assi, whom she married in 1955, composed songs for her. The first, “Itab,” blame in English, suited her plaintive voice and detached manner. It was an instant hit in the Arab world, launching her spectacular career which has spanned decades of instability and warfare.

Her first major concert was in 1957 at the second International Baalbek Festival. It was sponsored by Lebanese President Camille Chamoun who during 1958 was forced by Lebanon’s first civil war to drop his bid for an unconstitutional second term. Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers began by performing folkloric skits which, over the years, were transformed into operettas and concerts.

Lebanon prospered during the 1960s. Agriculture and tourism flourished. Fresh fruit and vegetables were flown to the Gulf emirates and Saudi Arabia. Lebanese expatriates and visitors from the Arab world flocked to Lebanon’s mountains and beaches during summer. Beirut became the “Paris of the Middle East.” Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers strove to invent distinctive Lebanese music by veering from the dominant Egyptian mode. This dictated the Egyptian accent and songs of half an hour or more. The trio introduced songs of short duration which incorporated popular Western features and created a distinct Lebanese style. The Rahbanis composed hundreds of songs for Fairuz. Fairuz performed in operettas and three films. Fairuz became known as the “First Lady of Lebanese song.”

By 1971, Fairuz went international by undertaking a tour in the US where she performed for communities of Arab background and mixed audiences. A concert that June in New York City’s Carnegie Hall was sold out, demonstrating her ability to draw non-Arab crowds. Since then, she has performed in two dozen countries: 11 in the Arab world plus France, Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Greece, Canada, the US, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. Record sales at that time exceeded 30 million at that time.

In September 1972, Assi suffered a brain haemorrhage. Although this was halted by surgery, he was an invalid for a year during which Ziad, the son of Fairuz and Assi, composed while young Elias Rahbani became involved in orchestration. After a year, Assi returned to the hectic pace set for Fairuz’s team.

When Lebanon’s second civil war (late 1975-1990) erupted, Fairuz refused to take sides and perform publicly in Lebanon in protest against the conflict. The Rahbanis targeted the warring sides with satire. Following a 1978 tour of Europe and the Gulf, the Rahbani brothers and Fairuz ended their professional connection and she and her son Ziad became partners in her career. When Assi died in 1986, Beirut’s warring sides declared a day of mourning, ceased fire and opened the West-East checkpoints for his funeral.

Undeterred by civil conflict, in 1982 Israel invaded and occupied Lebanon from the border to the edge of west Beirut, driving southern Shias northwards and the Palestinian liberation movement out of the country. That war gave birth to Hizbollah which in 2000 ousted Israeli forces from the south and fought the Israeli army to a standstill when it invaded in 2006.

In October 1988, Fairuz appeared on French television, performed at a concert in Paris, and received the medal of Commandateur des Arts et des Lettres. In 1994, Fairuz sang at the concert held at Beirut’s Martyr’s Square to celebrate the reconstruction of the city centre which the war had gutted.

During the 1998 Baalbek Festival – held while Lebanon was still struggling to recover from 15 years of war - Fairuz, son Ziad, and brothers Mansour and Elias joined forces for the first time in 25 years to stage some of their old musical performances. At the close of the last act, Fairuz sang a wistful song for Assi: “I came to Baalbek after 20 years, asking where you are, but no one could tell me. Don’t say you’re not here. Your shadow is still fluttering on these stairs, calling into the echoes...”

Indefatigable Fairuz marked the arrival of new millennium with sold out performances and recordings. Her 2008 concert at the opera house in Damascus, the year’s Arab Cultural Capital, drew criticism from anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians. They have remained hostile to Damascus despite Syria’s 2005 withdrawal of forces deployed in 1976 at the request of then Lebanese President Suleiman Frangie.

Fairuz grew elusive, rarely granting interviews or appearing in public as her beloved Lebanon slipped into economic decline. In June 2022, Fairuz resurfaced and with her three children attended an annual church mass honouring her late husband Assi Rahbani. In October 2023 Hizbollah and Israel renewed hostilities.

Writing in “L’Orient-Le Jour” Soulayma Mardam Bey summed up Fairuz’s life: “Most people come into this world only once. But a select few manage to be born twice, their second arrival over-shadowing the first. Fairouz is one of them.”

Photo: TNS