38 Facts About Fairuz

Fairuz is widely considered an iconic vocalist and one of the most celebrated singers in the history of the Arab world.

Fairuz began her musical career as a teenager at the national radio station in Lebanon in the late 1940s as a chorus member.

Fairuz's fame spread throughout the Arab world in the 1950s and 1960s, leading her to perform outside of Lebanon in various Arab capitals, including Damascus, Amman, Cairo, Rabat, Algiers, and Tunis.

Fairuz has received honors and distinctions in multiple countries, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, the United States, Egypt, and France.

Fairuz's father, Wadie, was an Assyrian born in Mardin, then in Ottoman Syria, who moved to Lebanon to flee the Assyrian genocide.

Fairuz's mother, Lisa al-Boustani, was born in the village of Dibbiyeh, Mount Lebanon.

Fairuz started training her in control of intonation and poetic form, and in an audition, Nouhad was heard singing by Halim el Roumi, head of the Lebanese radio station established in 1938, one of the oldest stations in the Arab world.

Fairuz went on to compose several songs for her and chose for her the stage name Fairuz, which is the Arabic word for turquoise and had been adopted as a stage name by Syrian singer Fayrouz Al Halabiya.

Fairuz rose to fame during the golden era of Arabic music and is one of the last figures and contributors of that time alive today.

Fairuz is known for her particularly forlorn style of music, which is a fusion of western and Arab sounds.

Fairuz's music is set apart by its melancholic and nostalgic humor, along with Fairuz's stoic image as well as yearning voice, that is almost prayer-like, often described by experts as airy, clear, and flexible, different from the common ornamentation style commonly found in Arab music.

Fairuz performed in the Folkloric section of the festival representing "The Lebanese Nights".

Fairuz was paid one Lebanese pound for that show, but she and the Rahbani brothers would become staples of the festival and featured most years until the civil war in Lebanon.

Fairuz amassed more fame as she and other contemporaneous Arab artists were vocal about the Palestinian cause in their conflict with Israel and produced a number of militaristic and patriotically somber songs for them.

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 communities and yielded positive reviews of the concerts.

Fairuz then began to work almost exclusively with Ziad Rahbani, her son on producing her music.

Fairuz 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.

Fairuz became a representation of Lebanon, as well as stability in a time of insecurity and uncertainty.

Fairuz made a second and final European Television appearance on French TV on October 13,1988, in a show called Du cote de chez Fred.

Fairuz 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.

Fairuz performed a concert in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Arena in 1999 which was attended by over 16,000 spectators, mostly Arabs.

Ever since, Fairuz has held sold-out concerts at the Beiteddine International Festival from 2000 to 2003, Kuwait, Paris, the United States, Amman, Montreal, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Baalbeck, BIEL, Athens, Amman Damascus, and Bahrain.

On January 28,2008, Fairuz performed at the Damascus Opera House in an emotional return to the Syrian capital, where she played the lead role in the musical Sah el-Nom, after more than two decades of absence from the country, in one of a series of events highlighting UNESCO's designation of Damascus as the Capital of Arab Culture that year.

Syrian historian, Sami Moubayed, said that the Syrians were thrilled about the performance and that Fairuz reminded them of the "good old days".

Fairuz said that she had never seen such an audience in her life.

Fairuz released her first album in seven years titled Bebalee on September 22,2017.

Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze Progressive Socialist Party, accused Fairuz of "playing into the hands of Syrian intelligence services", while fellow party member Akram Chehayeb said that "those who love Lebanon do not sing for its jailers", in reference to the three-decades-long Syrian occupation of Lebanon.

Supporters of Fairuz counterclaimed that she has always been above politics.

Syrian commentator Ayman Abdelnour said that Fairuz was performing to the Syrian people, not their rulers.

Fairuz's brother-in-law and her former partner Mansour Rahbani defended her decision to perform there, saying it was "a message of love and peace from Lebanon to Syria".

In 1969, Fairuz's songs were banned from radio stations in Lebanon for six months because she refused to sing at a private concert in honour of Algerian president Houari Boumedienne.

Fairuz said that while always willing to sing to the public and to various countries and regions, she would never sing to any individual.

Since many of the Rahbanis' works were co-written by Assi's brother Mansour, in June 2010, a year after Mansour's death in January 2009, a Lebanese court banned Fairuz from singing material that involved his contributions.

Ziad replied: "Fairuz is very fond of Sayyed Hassan [Nasrallah], although she will be displeased with me, as she was after my last television interview when I revealed some personal information and she quickly interrupted me".

Fairuz has performed in many countries around the globe including Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Netherlands, Greece, Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Italy, and her home country Lebanon.

Fairuz is described as being incredibly reserved and modest in the way a mother would be, and embodies the Lebanese woman at home.

In 1997, Billboard stated "even after five decades at the top, [Fairuz] remains the supreme Diva of Lebanon".

Fairuz has released a live album on Folkways Records in 1994, entitled Lebanon: The Baalbek Folk Festival.