Farid El Atrash

Origin: Syria Syria Genres: Arabic, Egyptian classical, Instrumental Occupations: Singer, Actor, Composer, Instrumentalist Years active: 1930s-1970s Farid was born in Syria to the Druze Atrash family who fought the French Colonial armies.His father was Syrian and mother Lebanese. According to Author, Mohamed al-Taba'i, al-Atrash family was not princely, "there was not a single prince or princess in al-Atrash family." The truth of the matter was that Hassan al-Atrash was the mayor of Jabal al-Druze. The French word for mayor, Le Maire, was deliberately manipulated to the Arabic word, al-Amir, or Prince, but his true title was Le Maire Hassan al-Atrash, not al-Amir Hassan al-Atrash. As a child, Farid emigrated with his mother and siblings to Egypt, escaping the French occupation. Later, they were naturalized by the Egyptian government as citizens. Farid’s mother sang and played the Oud, which spurred his musical interest at an early age. As a child and young adult, Farid sang in school events. He studied in a music conservatory and became an apprentice of the renowned composer Riyad as-Sunbaty. In the 1930’s, Farid began his professional singing career by working for privately owned Egyptian radio stations. Eventually, he was hired as an Oud player for the national radio station and later as a singer. His sister, Asmahan, was also a talented singer, and for a while they worked together. In 1941, they starred in their first successful movie, in which Farid himself composed all the music. Quick success brought the young man a lifestyle of nightclubs, love affairs, and gambling. Soon Farid was in debt and found himself abandoned by his disapproving mother. During this difficult period of his life, he also endured the death of his sister and fellow performer Asmahan. Farid found comfort in a relationship with the belly-dancer Samia Gamal, for whom he was motivated to risk all he owned. In 1947, he produced and co-starred in a movie with Samia, and it became a huge success. Five films later, the unmarried couple broke up. Farid continued to work with other film stars in numerous successful movies in which he always had the romantic lead role of a sad singer. He even repeatedly chose his character’s name to be "Wahid," meaning lonely. Farid refused to get married, claiming that marriage kills art. In his films, the audience remembered his leading ladies and Farid’s beautiful songs more than the story lines. Prior to the 1952 military coup d'état against King Farouk I, Farid became friends with Farouk's consort, Queen Nariman, a relationship that continued after the Queen's divorce and the coup that cost Farouk his throne. The former queen's family did not accept Farid, and the separation from Nariman sent the singer into a long depression, the start of health problems that worsened from that point on until his death. As Farid became older, he reconsidered his opinion of marriage and proposed to Egyptian singer named Shadia, but at the last minute he backed out. By now his health was poor, and Farid feared that he would leave her a young widow. He often played out that scenario and sang about it in his romance movies. Farid suffered from heart problems throughout his last 30 years. In the last few years of his life, he became physically thinner, and his singing voice became raspy as his sickness intensified. Although he was struggling with his health, he continued to make movies and perform in concerts until he died. On December 26, 1974, Farid died in Beirut at Al Hayek hospital,shortly after arriving from London. Farid is buried in Cairo, Egypt alongside his sister and brother. Over his lifetime, Farid starred in 31 movies and recorded approximately 350 songs. He composed songs for top Arab singers, foremost his own sister, Asmahan, as well as Wadih El-Safi, Shadia, Warda, and Sabah. He is widely considered to be one of the four 'greats' of Egyptian and Arabic music, along with Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Abdel Halim Hafez.