In honor of the iconic Syrian singer and actor Farid el Atrash, Egypt Today commemorates his life and career on the occasion of his 109th birthday. <\/p>\n
Born on April 15, 1910, into a Druze family in southern Syria, Atrash’ family participated in the resistance against the French occupation of Syria. <\/p>\n
Due to the danger of war in Syria, Atrash immigrated with his mother, his brother Fouad, and his sister Asmahan to Egypt. There, he learned from his mother to sing and play oud. Then, he joined the High Institute of Music in Cairo. <\/p>\n
Having a great passion for music, Atrash collaborated with Lebanese actress and belly dancer Badia Masabni. Shortly after, he attempted to perform on the Egyptian National Radio. Following many failed attempts, he finally succeeded and released his first single \u201cYa Retny Tair\u201d (I Wish I Could Be a Bird). <\/p>\n
Referred to as the \u201cKing of Oud\u201d, Atrash composed a number of iconic songs for leading signers like his sister Asmahan, Fayza Ahmed, Fatheya Ahmed, Shadia and Sabah. <\/p>\n
He presented more than 220 songs like \u201cGameel Gamal\u201d (So Beautiful), \u201cEsmaa\u2019 Lama Aaolak\u201d (Listen to Me), \u201cWahdany\u201d (I am Alone) and \u201cZiena\u201d. <\/p>\n
Having acted with Egyptian cinema icons like Shadia, Lobna Abdel Aziz and Samia Gamal, Atrash was in more than 30 films, including \u201cIntesar El Shabab\u201d (Youth Victory), \u201cHabib El Omr\u201d (My Love), \u201cResalah Min Emra\u2019a Maghola\u201d (Message from an Unknown Woman) and \u201cMontaha El Farah\u201d (Extremely Happy). <\/p>\n
Many don\u2019t know that Atrash was the one who taught great late Egyptian actress Hend Rostom how to dance in the movie \u201cEnta Habeeby\u201d (You\u2019re My Lover), where he used to dance behind the camera while Rostom mimicked his moves. <\/p>\n
One of the immortal duets in the history of the Egyptian cinema was \u201cYa Salam Ala Hobi we Hobak\u201d (Our Love is Exceptional), mainly because it was sung by two of the most popular singers \u2013 Shadia and Atrash. The song satirically describes fake love relationships. Performed in \u201cEnta Habiby\u201d in 1957, it was composed by Atrash and written by Fathy Qoura. <\/p>\n
Atrash died in Beirut in 1974 at the age of 64. He will always be remembered as one of the Arab world\u2019s greatest musicians. <\/p>\n
Egypt Today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In honor of the iconic Syrian singer and actor Farid el Atrash, Egypt Today commemorates his life and career on the occasion of his 109th birthday. Born on April 15, 1910, into a Druze family in southern Syria, Atrash’ family participated in the resistance against the French occupation of Syria. Due to the danger of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":131227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7863],"tags":[2484,47512,47513,47511],"class_list":["post-131226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","tag-egypt","tag-enta-habiby","tag-farid-el-atrash","tag-fathy-qoura"],"yoast_head":"\n