Farid al-Atrash was a Syrian-Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso oud player, and actor. His sister, Asmahan, was also a talented singer, and for a while they worked together. His last film was “Naga Hayati,” released after he died in 1974.
About Farid al-Atrash in brief
Farid al-Atrash was a Syrian-Egyptian composer, singer, virtuoso oud player, and actor. He had a long and colorful music career lasting four decades. His sister, Asmahan, was also a talented singer, and for a while they worked together. In 1941, they starred in their first successful movie Intisar a l-Shabab, in which Farid himself composed all the music. His last movie, Nagham Hayati, was released after his death in 1974. He composed musically diverse songs, and was a highly regarded composer. Although some of his music had western musical influence, he always stayed true to Arab music principles. His singing style was deeply passionate. In many of his songs, he would sing a mawal, which is a local folk Egyptian slow voice improvisation of a few poetic lines.
These improvisations sometimes lasted up to 15 minutes. Some of the most famous songs include “Rabeeh,” “Awal Hamsa,” “Gamil Gamal,” “Ya Reitni Tir” and “Adnaytani Bil Hajr” His last film was “Naga Hayati,” released after he died in 1974, and it was the last of his films except for the two black ones, which were released later in the same year. He died of a heart attack at the age of 83. He is buried in the Cairo suburb of Al-Qurayya, in southern Syria to the Druze princely al-atrash family who fought the French colonial army. His father was Syrian and his mother was Lebanese. As a young child he emigrated to Egypt, escaping the French occupation.
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This page is based on the article Farid al-Atrash published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
