If you search for Fairouz on YouTube, you will find a rare televised interview. Recorded in 1989 in Egypt, the legendary Lebanese singer sits in an empty cafe overlooking the pyramids with her interlocutor opposite her. The contrast between the two couldn't be any more apparent – there's the giddy interviewer in his white suit, noticeably sweating from nerves and excitement, and Fairouz, then 53, with her signature sunken eyes burning into him.
Leaning from his chair – as if ready to pour adoration on his subject – his long-winded introduction summons the birds, the Moon and the Lebanese mountains as examples of Fairouz’s artistry and place in the cultural fabric of the Arab world.
Fairouz soaks it up with a detachment that speaks more of defensiveness than arrogance. She is dressed in a black sweater embroidered with flowers, her hands clasped as she weathers the deluge of praise.
It is a terrible interview – the host’s over-eagerness unnerves Fairouz. The famously reclusive singer is curt, her answers clipped and delivered succinctly.
While not the most riveting of discussions, the mostly one-way conversation does offer a few valuable insights into a woman revered across the Middle East. The first of these is her accent – despite being a pan-Arab cultural icon that has commanded the attention of leaders and fans across the region, Fairouz has never lost her thick mountainous "jebeli" tone, which is synonymous with the Lebanese dialect.
Secondly, and perhaps not surprisingly, we see that she is more comfortable under the spotlight of the stage than in front of any camera or journalist.
The interviewer, perhaps knowing this will be his one and only sit-down with the legend, prods Fairouz about her artistic process and what is going one beneath the stony composure.
“I do feel the love that is given to me,” she replies quietly. “I feel it, I acknowledge it and I also give that love back. But my love is silent. It’s not expressed through words, but when I sing.”
There is clearly more to it than that. Despite a more-than-six-decade career that has seen her perform in small village churches and packed amphitheatres through some of the most testing periods gripping Arab societies, Fairouz still gets the shakes before going on stage.
She details this recurring stage fright in Bghayr Denee, one of the tracks on her startling new album Bebalee, which was released a fortnight ago and is her first in seven years.
The lyrics transport us to Fairouz walking onto the stage to the applause of a sold-out crowd. Behind the smile is the inner turmoil scored by the throbbing bass, pensive piano and circling flugelhorns.
The lyrics – “Their eyes are focused on me/ My heart pounds and my fear increases/ This feeling is not new despite the chaos surrounding me” – speak for themselves.
It is but one of the many revelations of Bebalee, which is a somewhat controversial offering.
Produced by her daughter Rima Rahbani, who also serves as a translator, the album is a covers collection of international songs that inspired Fairouz throughout her career.
It is an eclectic offering, indicating that the 81-year-old veteran has a more expansive ear than perhaps many thought. The first single, Lameen, is her take on French chanson Pour Qui Veille L'Étoile by Pierre Delanoë, and then there are her versions of John Lennon's Imagine and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Don't Cry for Me Argentina.
After a seven-year wait for the new material from a star who so often manages to capture the regional mood, one can understand the reaction of fans and Arab cultural personalities to the new album, which also sees Fairouz taking on Besame Mucho.
Lebanese composer Ziyad Sahhab was scathing in his assessment of Bebalee, deeming that the decision to record a set of international cover songs was the move of an amateur, as opposed to an artist of Fairouz's stature.
However, Sahhab squarely pins the blame on Fairouz's daughter, stating that her production doesn't hold a candle to that of her eldest son and former collaborator Ziad Rahbani.
While claiming that some of the songs have merit, Lebanese singer-songwriter Tania Saleh also expressed disappointment with the overall quality on offer. She dismisses any suggestions that Ziad would have done a better job than his sister stem from sexism.
"The issue is not about men and women here," she tells me.
“Ziad has more experience and he is the real artist in the family. He has proved that he is a genius in being able to provide beautiful and timeless songs to Fairouz.”
Meanwhile, Abdou Wazin, culture editor for pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, stated that the criticism regarding Fairouz recording non-original songs are unfounded, reasoning that any basic examination of her career will reveal she covered songs by European artists throughout her career.
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Eternal Fairouz
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Some of the reaction points to the deep and creatively dangerous esteem fans hold for Fairouz – it is indeed the kind of adoration that causes the heart to pound, the fear to increase, and the furore is coupled with a messy court case triggered by a family dispute.
Her subsequent decision to break free is a grand statement of quiet artistic rebellion.
With Bebalee, Fairouz flips the script. Where her oldest, most popular songs spoke of a hopeful future, her latest collection finds her singing mostly of a nostalgic past.
She was born Nouhad Haddad in 1935 in the pastoral mountain village of Jebel Arz, south of Beirut. Her family eventually moved to the capital and set up home in the cobblestone streets of city quarter Zuqaq Al-Blat.
Inspired by the great Egyptian singers of the era – particularly the yearning songs of Asmahan and Layla Mourad wafting out of the family radio – Fairouz started singing as a teenager and subsequently began landing gigs as a chorus singer for Lebanese radio.
It was there she met music producer Halim Al Rumi. Impressed by the young Haddad's ability to memorise long, complex poems, he began composing a string of songs for her. While the pieces didn't amount to much, it was through another creative endeavour that he cemented himself in Arab music folklore.
As per regional custom, an artist's stage name is often given by the person who discovered them. Al Rumi chose Fairouz, which means "turquoise", because he deemed her voice as delicate as a precious stone.
Sensing that he could only take her prodigious talent so far, Al Rumi introduced her to Assi Rahbani, who alongside his brother Mansour, was a fledgling composer often found in the station shopping their latest compositions.
Fairouz represented the missing link to the brothers' work, and her sensuous take on their lovelorn song Itab (Reproaches) was an overnight success in 1952. It also helped set one of the trademarks of that Fairouz sound: a soft crystalline voice detailing powerful emotions such as love and longing.
Songs such as Ana La Habibi (I Am for My Love) and Kifak Inta (How Are You) were written from a singular perspective, but the feelings that they evoked were communal. Her love stories were ours, in addition to the heartbreak that came along the way.
These songs also spoke of the blossoming relationship between Fairouz and Assi, which was cemented when the two married in 1954 and moved to Antelias, a town on the outskirts of Beirut, which was home to the Rahbani clan.
Fairouz recalls that time in Bebalee with Lameen, a touching, sepia-toned love letter to her husband, who died in 1986.
You can visualise Fairouz in the studio smiling whimsical as she remembers those early tender moments.
Where Lameen evokes the whimsy of the courting process, the settled jazz and tango groove of the following track, Ana Weyak, based on Besame Mucho by Mexican singer and pianist Consuelo Velázquez, is the sound of a seasoned couple: "We fought and we made up and you would sing me a song/ Our days and nights and the stories we would tell I would not forget."
With the Arab world’s cultural centre of gravity’s moving from Cairo to Beirut from the late 1950s, it heralded a golden age of Fairouz and Lebanese folk music.
It was a period symbolised with Fairouz's now-legendary debut appearance at Beirut's Baalbeck Festival in 1957, where among the Roman ruins she performed Rahbani Brothers operettas – which spoke of love of country and national unity – almost annually until the advent of civil war in the 1975.
With Bebalee functioning as a sonic travelogue during her career, it is the omission of any songs evoking that heroic period that caused the most critical consternation.
The closest it comes to that era is in Yemken, her version of Imagine. With the 1971 track by the ex-Beatle being a staple of popular culture, Fairouz and her team needed to provide a unique perspective to keep it fresh for the ears. Unfortunately, the original is afforded too much respect and Yemken sounds like a mediocre karaoke cover. This is a pity, because it overshadows the interesting lyricism involved.
Part of Fairouz’s appeal during her heyday was her stubborn refusal to leave Lebanon, as the country stumbled into the abyss of civil war. Instead, she would famously lock herself at her Beirut home whenever she returned from an overseas show.
With Yemken's alarmingly trite production of piano, gentle acoustic strumming and an ill-advised Polynesian-style percussion, one can almost imagine Fairouz peering out the window of her self-imposed national exile as she dreamt of a better future "without injustice, death, fear and reprisals".
It is here, and on the album's closing, song Baytee Zgheer (a more modern remake of an earlier Fairouz track), that one misses Fairouz's previous collaborative work with Ziad.
Since her husband's death, it is their eldest son who has taken on the lion's share of the composing duties, including Fairouz's previous hit album Eh Fi Amal in 2007.
Rahbani's erratic behaviour and controversial comments regarding his mother's alleged support for Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were what caused his present blacklisting from this latest project. Then there was the added tension of the 2010 court case – instigated by the children of one of Fairouz's main songwriters, the late Mansour Rahbani (her husband's brother) – regarding copyright permissions. The end result was a court ruling that effectively banned Fairouz from singing the patriotic anthem Ya'ish, Ya'ish (Long Live, Long Live) until the ongoing dispute over royalties is resolved.
With all that going one, it made sense for Fairouz to go for an album of covers.
Bebalee is a statement of defiance by an artist intent on expressing herself. Through the songs of the others, Fairouz bares her soul.
Bebalee is out now on Decca
The biog
Fatima Al Darmaki is an Emirati widow with three children
She has received 46 certificates of appreciation and excellence throughout her career
She won the 'ideal mother' category at the Minister of Interior Awards for Excellence
Her favourite food is Harees, a slow-cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled wheat berries mixed with chicken
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
Why your domicile status is important
Your UK residence status is assessed using the statutory residence test. While your residence status – ie where you live - is assessed every year, your domicile status is assessed over your lifetime.
Your domicile of origin generally comes from your parents and if your parents were not married, then it is decided by your father. Your domicile is generally the country your father considered his permanent home when you were born.
UK residents who have their permanent home ("domicile") outside the UK may not have to pay UK tax on foreign income. For example, they do not pay tax on foreign income or gains if they are less than £2,000 in the tax year and do not transfer that gain to a UK bank account.
A UK-domiciled person, however, is liable for UK tax on their worldwide income and gains when they are resident in the UK.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
More on animal trafficking
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Company%20Profile
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
SPECS
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
The biog
Favourite film: Motorcycle Dairies, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Kagemusha
Favourite book: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Holiday destination: Sri Lanka
First car: VW Golf
Proudest achievement: Building Robotics Labs at Khalifa University and King’s College London, Daughters
Driverless cars or drones: Driverless Cars
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
ENGLAND%20SQUAD
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
BRIEF SCORES:
Toss: Nepal, chose to field
UAE 153-6: Shaiman (59), Usman (30); Regmi 2-23
Nepal 132-7: Jora 53 not out; Zahoor 2-17
Result: UAE won by 21 runs
Series: UAE lead 1-0
Ferrari
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Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The First Monday in May
Director: Andrew Rossi
Starring: Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, John Paul Gaultier, Rihanna
Three stars
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
More coverage from the Future Forum
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
The bio
Favourite book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite travel destination: Maldives and south of France
Favourite pastime: Family and friends, meditation, discovering new cuisines
Favourite Movie: Joker (2019). I didn’t like it while I was watching it but then afterwards I loved it. I loved the psychology behind it.
Favourite Author: My father for sure
Favourite Artist: Damien Hurst
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
MO
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Racecard
6pm: The Pointe - Conditions (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m
6.35pm: Palm West Beach - Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (T) 1,800m
7.10pm: The View at the Palm - Handicap (TB) Dh85,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
7.45pm: Nakeel Graduate Stakes - Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 1,600m
8.20pm: Club Vista Mare - Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,900m
8.55pm: The Palm Fountain - Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,200m
9.30pm: The Palm Tower - Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,600m
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5