Friday, May 11, 2012

Farid al-Atrache




Farid al-Atrache was born in Syria and escaped the French occupation of Syria with his mother and siblings. They emigrated to Egypt where he became a composer, singer, virtuoso oud player and an actor. He was known as 'King of the Oud"(a musical instrument of the Middle East and northern Africa belonging to the lute family.)
He was also well known for writing his sad love songs in his musical films and most of the instrumentals and songs sung by other singers. He was deeply in love with an Egyptian belly dancer called Samia Gamal who he gave a small role to in one of his movies when she approached him at the age of eighteen with a bunch of flowers. She was a belly dancer who came from the town of Wana in Egypt.Farid was impressed with her beauty and she idolised him. She later became famous and made movies with Farid and on her own. Her mesmerising performances brought recognition for Oriental dancing worldwide. Their romance was to last for five years and he supposedly said he couldn't marry her because he was a Druze Prince and could only marry a Druze Princess. He did have a few loves throughout his lifetime but never married. In his movies he always took the romantic lead role of a heavy hearted singer.

SAMIA GAMAL

No comments: