HAPPY 89TH BIRTHDAY MADAME FAIRUZ
In 1991, two songs by FAIRUZ were featured in the soundtrack of French film Les Amants du Pont Neuf - directed by Leos Carax, starring Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche
A space that revolves around FAIRUZ, created and run by Ali Raffaele, from Rome.
Considering the stereotyped image of the immensely popular diva in the Arab world, this space aims to be a culturally different point of view about a singer like few others in history.
Fairuz deserves more than vulgarly being called "the voice of the morning".
• ARCHIVE Fairuz Stuff
عاحبك ربينا وبعزك غنينا
Joyeux anniversaire à madame Fairuz, née le 20 novembre 1934
(Séquences extraits de Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, Paris 1988)
The historical meeting between Président Macron and Madame Fairuz
August 31 2020
© Soazig de la Moissonniere / Présidence de la République
Non solo Fairuz – Q Code Magazine
About the recent wave of Arabic jazz and electronic music released thoughout Europe and the reissue of WAHDON, the first album produced by Ziad Rahbani for Fairuz in 1979.
Madame Fairuz attending the Solemn Appeal on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions in 1999. She was formally invited as a representative of the Arab world, Middle East and North Africa, along with other international personalities, in order to declare once again the refusal to see the horrors of the Second World War repeated. Instead of giving a talk, she insisted on singing only a single song, Al Ard Lakom, over a poem by Gibran.
Throughout her long and still ongoing career, Fairuz has never been only considered a diva but an icon of culture, peace and cohesion at her highness.
Fairuz in the backstage of her Las Vegas’ performance
1999
LONG LIVE to the eternal FAIRUZ who turns 85 today.
“Despite the many sorrows betrayed on her face, her voice expresses a profound generosity that the audience applaude by whistling, stamping, dancing, and listening.
As she proceedes from song to song, she recedes into her memory. Her old power returnes, and with it those inflexions which are hers in particular, and with which she transforms the most ordinary words into a mystical experience.” (ETEL ADNAN, 2000)
(via fairuzstuff)
Within the timeline of Fairuz, the 1981 Legend and Legacy tour, which took place in the USA and Canada for about two months, is with no doubt her longest and most successful tour. Part of its importantance comes from the historical fact that it was Fairuz’s first attempt to perform without the presence (and therefore the “pressure”) of the Rahbani Brothers, after they separated in the second half of 1979. Her performances during this tour are her brightest. She introduced the audience to a slightly different way of performing, wearing in some occasion a delightful crown on her head and singing both new songs and hits of her past repertoire, rearranged with creativity by Ziad Rahbani. It’s simply unforgettable the magical jazzy rearrangement of Habbeytak bel Saif, one of her most adored hits of all time.
The cherry on top is the one-night-only concert at the general lobby of the UN’s headquarter in New York, aimed to homage Gibran Khalil Gibran. For the occasion she sang -for the first time in public- Safinati bi Intizari, also known as Al Ardo Lakom, composed by Ziad Rahbani himself with lyrics by Gibran, taken from “The Prophet” book. About this night, there’s a wondrous dossier written by American expert Hoberman and partially cited in the booklet of “Fairuz At The Royal Festival Hall London 1986” CD.
(via fairuzstuff)
Lebanese diva Fairuz' 1978 album Wahdon reissued on vinyl
A very cool record label from France, named WeWantSound, is releasing the most interesting world music masterpieces on vinyl. After having turned the light back on Japanese pioners of Electronic music Yellow Magic Orchestra and Akiko Yano, former life partner of legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto, WeWantSound has made Ziad Rahbani’s Abu Ali available again in its original vinyl format.
Now it’s the turn of Wahdon, the very first joint album between Fairuz and her son Ziad Rahbani, recorded during the Abu Ali sessions in 1978. For the occasion, French web radio TSUGI has broadcasted a remastered version of “Habaitak Ta Neseet Al Naoum” (“I loved you so much i forgot to sleep”).
ziad rahbani
And Ziad Rahbani did it again. The legendary Lebanese master of music joined the internet, giving his eager fans what they longed for. His official entrance on the net happened definitely later than that of any other artist, as of February 2019. A full decade after his sister Rima Rahbani decided to randomly scatter, both on Facebook and Youtube, some of the videos she edited, filmed and/or directed for Fairuz during her last twenty years, over several channels: a personal one and an official account for Fairuz,opened in 2009 and later dismissed and replaced by another one, named “Fayrouz Productions”. Not forgetting the ra7neb2asawa channel, conceived mainly as a tribute for Assi Rahbani, along with the homonym Facebook page. At the beginning of 2018, she also appeared on Vimeo with another scarsely updated channel, increasing her own presence on the Internet. By directly chosing to open a PRO account on Vimeo, a more professional platform for artists than Youtube, Ziad Rahbani did an exceptional step in showing once more his professionality. Up to now, the account appears constantly updated, containing a dozen of fully filmed concerts (sliced into several parts, due to length constraints) with never seen before pictures and footages of rehearsals at Studio Notta. In his clear attempt to differentiate himself, the videos he is enriching the net with are all in high definition and, obviously, lack of any watermark in the middle, offering his own repertoire to the audience of the Internet. It’s literally impossible to hope for something afferent to Fairuz herself to be shown in high quality on Ziad’s Vimeo channel but, who knows what will time reveal?
In the abandoned Elie Saab during the only performance of Sah El-Nawm in Baalbeck, July 2006
Sah El Nawm holds for now -and probably won’t be replaced in the future by any- the case of unique operetta, among dozens, replayed on stage by Fairuz in her post-Rahbani Brothers age. 2018 marks the 10th anniversary since Sah el Nawm’s last replica, which run in the 2006-2008 triennium, exclusively in the Middle East area. This musical operetta was originally brought on stage in 1970 and 1971 during the peek of Fairuz’s work with Rahbani Brothers, concluded in 1979, and was therefore revived in Lebanon after more than 35 years, in 2006.
The events of the work revolve around the figure of a village’s monarch (performed by Antoine Kerbaj) who’s used to sleep for long periods, thus ignoring and rejecting inhabitans’ needs. Not tolerating this context of clear social oppression, Fairuz -whose iconic image with an umbrella comes from her own character in Sah El Nawm- sneaks into the king’s office, steals his official stamp and approves all the citizens’ projects, thus raising the village’s standard of living.
Paradoxically, not a single replica of Sah El Nawm happened without being surrounded by political troubles. Starting from the opening in Baalbeck in 2006 on July 12th, suspended because of the imminent Israeli aggression to Lebanon, to the revival of the show, after the war, at Biel in Beirut in December 2006, criticized because of the inappropriateness of doing a joyful event after such a short period from the war, to the prohibition attempts from Mansour Rahbani and sons in Amman in 2007 and in Sharjah in 2008. Not mentioning the poisoned tone raised after Fairuz decided to play the musical in Damascus in 2008. In that occasion, Antoine Kerbaj’s cartoonist son Mazen Kerbaj published a satirical cartoon depicting the issue in Lebanese daily Al Akhbar:
Fairuz escorted by her own brother Joseph Haddad in 1981 during her Legend and Legacy US tour, while autographing for a lucky fan a poster-size picture of her, taken by Dencho Valserra.
(Source: brokenmirror31)
Fairuz in Beiteddine 2000, with her stunning only-once-worn red dress
Fairuz’s first historic performance at Beiteddine, coordinated by Ziad Rahbani in August 2000, happened exactly 18 years ago. In July 2018, Ziad Rahbani made his long awaited comeback performing with a large chorus and orchestra on the same stage at Beiteddine palace in Lebanon and was later interviewed by radio Sawt al Shaab. During the talk, he expressly urged Rima Rahbani to release the filmed concert of Beiteddine 2000 because, as he remembered:
“She worked on it and it’s perfectly ready to be shown. Also, she can’t even complain about the quality of the recording because it’s exactly the same of the already available live CD”.
Some short parts of it were broadcasted in the news, years ago, and also, the video of “Sabah ou Masaa” performance from the concert was given to Jack Janssen for his 2003 documentary “We Loved Each Other So Much”.
Will someday Rima Rahbani accept to release the whole filmed historical concert?
(via fairuzstuff)
Here are the tracks of Bebalee in order of my own preference:
Bghayr Denee (Seul sur son étoile), since the album came out in September, has immediately become my favourite. The lyrics, customized by Rima Rahbani for Fairuz, have a clear autobiographical echo, depicting the fears encountered by Fairuz in the moment of her access to the concert hall. Listening to this, you can’t avoid remembering those interviews by Fairuz in which she used to admit her lack of confidence and her natural uneasiness in front of every audience, every crowd. The arrangement is not that bad, excepting the refrain’s, which seems a bit incoherent than the rest.
Bebalee (The way we were) has stuck to my mind even if I can’t even explain why. It’s an unpretentious short piece, simply talking about memories, as well as the original song’s lyrics. A couple of words reminded me of Tania Saleh’s “A few images” (شوية صور), making me think that, if Tania would have collaborated with Fairuz for this album, the result would have surely been more brilliant.
Rah Nerjaa Netla'a (Auld Lang Syne) is Fairuz’s lovely tradition of adapting Christmas songs in Arabic. It started with Rahbani Brothers’s Christmas Hymns in 1960s to find then a continuation in 1986 when Fairuz did a Christmas live concert in the United Kingdom and then released a wonderfully recorded album entitled Christmas Carols from East and West. My heart melts in the ending part of this one, when Fairuz promises us that we will always be able to meet her, someday, somehow. Also, its being the first track of the album seems like an echo for “Kifak Enta” album, where the 1st track was the “Farewell song” | “Oghniat al wada’”.
Hkayaat Kteer (My Way) is with no doubt the most promising and autobiographic song of the album (and that’s why it’s on the 7th position of the tracklist, which is said to be the position of the most important track of any album). It’s like if Fairuz simply wanted to say with this song what she always wanted to express, as she used to say in many interviews: “If I want to say something, I do it with a song”.
Ma tezaal menni (Don’t Cry For Me Argentina) seems to be put in the album to recall that Fairuz is first of all a national icon, then a singer. There also are some autobiographical referents in the lyrics, to make everybody remember that Fairuz never left Lebanon even during times of war… Not a bad one but quite predictable.
Lameen (Pour qui veille l'etoile) has become day by day one of my favourite ones, though I initially hated it when it was released in June. What makes now Lameen appealing to my ears? Its own simplicity and the joyous tone that makes me realize how much Fairuz enjoyed recording it.
Ana Weyyak (Besame mucho) has maybe the worst music base of the whole album and is surely the most embarrassing version of Besame Mucho ever released in the music history… But I someway appreciate the tone and the references to Fairuz’s partner of life and song, her late husband Assi Rahbani.
Yemken (Imagine) is just literally the karaoke version of John Lennon’s hit. If I were Steve Sidwell, I would really be ashamed of signing such an awfully effortless arrangement for one of the most celebrated hymns for universal peace.
Baytee Zgheer (Ma cabane au canada) is nothing but a filler added to increase the number of tracks, since it was recorded and released in 2005. It’s a nice song which every fan of Fairuz already knew but it might was that very first step which led Reema Rahbany to conceive this album…