Fairuz

The Lebanese vocalist Fairuz (or Fairouz), known as "Lebanon's ambassador to the stars," is one of the all-time great Arab vocalists. Born to a working-class Maronite Christian family in 1934 or 1935 and a resident of Beirut, her real name was Nouhad Haddad; her stage name means "turquoise" in Arabic.

Fairuz's first break came while she was still a teenager and was tapped to sing for Lebanese radio, but her ascent to real superstardom was the result of teaming up with the composer-lyricist team of brothers Asi and Mansour Rahbani, with whom she worked for 30 years. (Fairuz married Asi in 1954.) With Fairuz as their muse, the Rahbanis wrote a staggering amount of material, encompassing Arab classical music and East/West pop hybrids as well as inventive works that wove in material from tango to Mozart. Fairuz also recorded Lebanese nationalist songs as well as patriotic material for Palestinian and Syrian audiences, and she frequently toured the major capitals of the Middle East.

Fairuz's political involvement ran deep. Her music was banned in Lebanon in1969 because she refused to sing for Houari Boumedienne, who had recently seized power to become president of Algeria. During the 1960s, she also starred in three movies. One, Safar Barlek (Exile), explored the Ottoman-era occupation of Lebanon, and the film incurred the wrath of the contemporary Turkish government. During the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990), she refused to leave Beirut even while the city endured its most dangerous days. Her neutrality during that intensely sectarian conflict made her even more of an icon for all Lebanese, and her first performance after the war was greeted by fans as the start of a new chapter in her country's history.

In 1971, Fairuz and the Rahbanis toured the United States and Europe; her appearance at Carnegie Hall became the stuff of legend, and a television documentary about her trip, Fairuz in America, was the highest rated show in the Arab world when it was broadcast.

Fairuz and Asi split up in the early 1980s, but in recent years their accomplished composer son, Ziad, has become her musical director. She continues to have an active international touring schedule.

Though hard to find, her album Good Friday: Eastern Sacred Songs is a classic; artists like Argentine Jewish composer Osvaldo Golijov and Greek singer Savina Yannatou have in recent years incorporated arrangements of the Christian Holy Week hymn "Wa Habibi (Oh, Beloved)" from this album into their own work. Another good choice is The Legendary Fairuz (EMI Hemisphere), which is a compilation of live recordings from the 1990s. —Anastasia Tsioulcas