Context
In memory of the musician Farid Al-Atrash
Yvan Gastaut
This programme, broadcast in 1986 on Egyptian television’s second channel (ERTU: Egyptian Radio and Television Union), is a portrait of the musician and actor Farid El Atrash, who had died twelve years before in 1974. It’s a post mortem evocation, based on interviews and archives, showing the importance of this man who is considered throughout the Arab world as one of the greatest classical singers of the 20th century as well as being a talented actor. Starting as a virtuoso of the oud, his deep voice and melancholic style inspired popular passion: he recorded about 350 songs, many of which can still be heard on Arab radio stations, and starred in over 30 films which are often re-shown on television, getting large audiences.
Born in 1915 in Beirut to a Syrian father who died young in 1924 and a Lebanese mother, Farid Al Atrash came from a Druze family which had fought against the French colonial forces stationed in Syria. From the early 1920’s, when his family was forced to flee to Egypt and found it difficult to get settled there, his mother, a traditional singer, taught him the oud: even as a child and adolescent his talent was noticed in the school holidays.
In 1925, he joined the Institute of Oriental Music in Cairo, where one of his teachers prompted him to express his feelings through singing, advising him even to cry: deep sadness then became his trademark. At the same time, in order to help support his mother, Farid Al Atrash became a salesman in a fabric store, while occasionally working in the evenings in Cairo’s nightclubs, Badia Massabny for example or the Balatchi .
The career of the man who was soon nicknamed the “sad singer” did not really take off until 1934, when the musician and artistic director of the Egyptian national radio, Medhat Assem, noticed Farid El Atrash at the Institute of Music and offered him a job on shows as a singer and oud player. In 1939, a British radio station gave him a place in an orchestra to make records. He agreed and made his first trip to Europe, London and Paris.
About the same time, Farid El Atrash tried his hand at composing: in the late 1930’s he recorded his first successes: Ya Zahratan Fi Khayali and Ya Ritni Tir, which became classics of oriental music.
In 1940, by which time he was a well-known musician and singer, he made his first film. In 1941 he had a great success with his sister Amashan (Amal), who was also an actress and singer, in Ahmed Badrakhan’s film, Intisar al-Shabab (the Victory of Youth) for which he composed the music and played the starring role.
With fame, Farid El Atrash let himself go in an agitated social life, frequenting nightclubs, casinos and horse racing while providing the tabloids with material about his love life. When his sister was killed in a car accident in 1944, the star was devastated and ruined. The song L’amour d’une vie written and composed in 1946 describes perfectly his suffering and misery, reflecting his state of utter devastation. It was such a huge success it encouraged Farid El Atrash to make a film about it. This was done the following year, he produced the film Habib al omr (The love of my life) and gave himself top billing with actress and dancer Samia Gamal with whom he was having a passionate love affair watched by the Egyptian media. Success was still there in 1950 when he produced another film Le Dernier Mensonge (The Last Lie) in which he shared the bill with Samia Gamal. But the couple did not last: after five films, Farid El Atrash and Samia Gamal split up in 1952 without ever having married.
The Egyptian star continued his successful career in cinema by producing, co-producing, starring in, writing the music for many films, such as in 1955, L’époque de la passion (The Time of Passion) with Mariam Fakhr-Eddin, and Youssef Wahbi, La plage de l’amour (The Beach of Love) in 1961 with Samira Ahmad and in 1969 Le grand amour (The Great Love) with Faten Hamama. His fame as a film actor coincided with his success with his female partners. He regularly took the part of sad, sentimental singer, keeping the same name through all his films: Wahid (solitary). But his success owed less to the scenario than to his musical performances and the strength of his poetry that overwhelmed the public with Ar-Rabi (Spring), and Awell Hamsah (first whisper). He also composed many popular songs such as Noura Noura, Gamil Gamal, Leyla and Hallet Layali which are sung throughout Egypt.
Farid El Atrash had long harboured a secret love for the Queen Nariman. In 1952, when King Farouk had to flee to France after Nasser's revolution, El Atrash took advantage of the Queen’s divorce and return to Egypt a few years later to declare his passion for her. But his song Bessat El Rih had marked him as a nationalist – the tumultuous relationship was short-lived since Nariman’s family were strongly opposed to their relationship, plunging Farid El Atrash deep into despair.
After the 1960’s, Farid El Atrash’s career faded. A victim of heart problems, his health gradually declined. He lived his last years in Beirut, where he made a few more films, but when he died his body was repatriated to Cairo where he wished to be buried. He has remained a strong presence in the Arab world as an exceptional singer.