User:Fitzcarmalan/sandbox

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Rewrite of Fairuz

1990s-present: Return to Baalbeck and beyond[edit]

In the summer of 1998, Fairuz made a special comeback to the second post-war Baalbeck Festival, after nearly twenty-four years of absence. It was agreed that the Rahbanis would include some pre-war works in the performance that evening, despite some controversy that involved them and the festival committee surrounding the non-participation of Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers in the 1997 event due to unclear circumstances.[n 1] The show, which was produced by Mansour Rahbani, opened with a song by Fairuz dating back to 1961, "Baalbeck, I am a candle on your steps", and ended with her singing two new songs by both Mansour and his younger brother Elias Rahbani.[2] Commenting on the occasion, Lebanese journalist Adbuh Wazin wrote on Al-Hayat: "The return of Fairouz is not just a return to the fortress and its steps, but is a recalling of the myth that the Rahbani Brothers and Fairouz created, and which was the only myth that withstood the destructive war". Lebanese president Elias Hrawi went on stage at the end of the performance to congratulate Fairuz, saying that "with her success comes Lebanon's success".[1][3] The show, however, received some negative reviews by fans and critics, mostly due to the playback feature of the performance among other issues. Even Ziad Rahbani may have refused to participate, possibly due to the use of pre-recorded songs.[4]

On May 15, 1999, between 10,000[5] and 13,000[6] people from different parts of the Western hemisphere, including Lebanon's ambassador to the United States, Farid Abboud, attended a Fairuz concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. $1.5 million are believed to have been invested by the MGM Grand on Fairuz and her 48-member entourage. Publicity for the event also proved to be costly, with full-page ads of the concert appearing in major American dailies.[5] Neil MacFarquhar wrote on The New York Times: "They came streaming in by the thousands, from Brooklyn and Buenos Aires, from Calgary and London and Washington and innumerable other cities, all of them wild to hear a rare live concert by the Arab world's most famous singer".[7]

In July 2007, she sang at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus beneath the Acropolis of Athens, Greece, in her last concert to date in Europe, after being invited by the international Athens and Epidaurus Festival.[8] In early November that same year, she appeared in the play Wake Up in Amman, Jordan, for the first time in the city since her last performance in 2004. The event was relocated from Baalbeck to Jordan due to the outbreak of the 2006 Lebanon War. Haaretz reported that since Israeli citizens couldn't legally travel to Lebanon, the show was attended by over 3,200 Israeli Arabs who went to Amman through a convoy of dozens of buses carrying them from different parts of Israel in a rare opportunity to see Fairuz perform.[9][10]

On January 28, 2008, Fairuz performed at the Damascus Opera House in an emotional return to the Syrian capital, where she played the lead role in the musical Sah el-Nom ("Good Morning"), after more than two decades of absence from the country, in one of a series of events highlighting UNESCO's designation of Damascus as the Capital of Arab Culture that year. Commenting on the event, the BBC wrote: "Every day the sun rises over Syria you hear one voice across the country - Fairuz, the legendary Lebanese singer and greatest living Arab diva". Syrian historian, Sami Moubayed, said that the Syrians were thrilled about the performance and that Fairuz reminded them of the "good old days". People from all ages attended the concert and the auditorium was packed with listeners. Fairuz said that she had never seen such an audience in her life. However, her decision to perform there drew criticism from Lebanese politicians who considered Syria to be a hostile nation.[11][12]

Controversies[edit]

The 2008 concert in Damascus angered some of her fans and several Lebanese politicians who described Syria as "enemy territory". Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Druze Progressive Socialist Party, accused Fairuz of "playing into the hands of Syrian intelligence services", while fellow party member Akram Chehayeb said that "those who love Lebanon do not sing for its jailers," in reference to the three decades long Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Even some Syrian opposition activists called on her to boycott the event. This came amid a political crisis in Lebanon between pro- and anti-Syria factions, as well as a renewed Syrian government crackdown on dissent that same day during which several people were arrested, including opposition figure Riad Seif and twelve other activists of the anti-government Damascus Declaration. A poll conducted a week before the concert by NOW Lebanon, a Lebanese web portal sympathetic to the anti-Syria March 14 Alliance, showed that 67% of the respondents were opposed to Fairuz's appearance in Damascus, with one of the website's editorials saying that "this was not the moment for a musical love-in". Fairuz refrained from commenting on the controversy. However, in a letter to the event's organizers, she said that the concert should be viewed from a cultural perspective, and wrote: "Damascus is not a cultural capital for this year only, but will remain a role model of art, culture and authenticity for the coming generations". She also told the head of the organizers that she felt it was a return to her second home. Syrian commentator Ayman Abdelnour said that Fairuz was performing to the Syrian people, not their rulers. Her brother-in-law and former partner Mansour Rahbani also defended her decision to perform there, saying it was "a message of love and peace from Lebanon to Syria".[11][12][13]

Since many of the Rahbanis' works were co-written by Assi's brother Mansour, in June 2010, a year after Mansour's death in January 2009, a Lebanese court banned Fairuz from singing material that involved his contributions. The issue began when Mansour's children filed a lawsuit against Fairuz when she was set to perform the song "Ya'ish Ya'ish" at the Casino du Liban. As a result, Fairuz could not perform such works without Mansour's children's permission. The court's decision led to protests around the world in response to what her fans perceived as an act of "silencing". Hundreds gathered in front of the National Museum of Beirut, led by a number of Arab artists, including Egyptian actress Ilham Chahine who flew to Lebanon in order to join the sit-in. "She is a great artistic personality who has entertained millions for decades. We cannot keep silent over this humiliating attitude to her, and to art and artistes in general," Chahine added. Ian Black wrote on The Guardian: "Outrage over her silencing has been a reminder of the extraordinary loyalty she still inspires across the region". Other reactions included a protest concert in Egypt, and a "Shame!" headline displayed by Emirati newspaper Al-Ittihad.[14][15]

Fairuz's son, Ziad Rahbani, sparked controversy in December 2013 during an interview with the Al-Ahed website when asked whether his mother shared the same supportive stance as his on the political vision of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, a dominant but highly controversial political and military force in Lebanon. Ziad replied: "Fairuz is very fond of Sayyed Hassan [Nasrallah], although she will be displeased with me, as she was after my last television interview, when I revealed some personal information and she quickly interrupted me".[16] There were strong reactions to this statement, which went viral on social media,[17] and the country's different media outlets did not deviate from their political stances when reacting to Ziad's words.[18] Politicians and celebrities stepped in as well, some of whom objected to affiliating Fairuz to one side of Lebanon's political divide over another, including Druze leader Walid Jumblatt who said: "Fairuz is too great to be criticized, and at the same time too great to be classified as belonging to this or that political camp". "Let us keep her in her supreme position, and not push her to something she has nothing to do with," Jumblatt added.[19] Ziad, who claims to speak on his mother's behalf "because she prefers to remain silent", responded to his critics by saying: "Apparently it isn’t allowed in the age of strife for the princess of classy Arab art to voice love for the master of resistance".[19] Nasrallah, commenting on the issue during a speech, stated: "An educated highly respected thinker and artist, who maybe espoused different ideologies, might disagree with you on political matters, but personally have [a] fondness for you, because of your character, conduct, sacrifices and so on. If such a person were to say that he or she liked someone, then all hell would break loose".[16]

Legacy[edit]

Fairuz is widely perceived in Lebanon, and even throughout the Arab world, as a national treasure. To this day, Lebanese people regard her as a source of pride to their country, and during her career she earned nicknames like "Ambassadress to the Stars" by Egyptian singer and composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab, as well as "Neighbor to the Moon" among others. Her songs still spark intimate memories of "happy times" in her country, and upon her return to the Baalbeck Festival in 1998, local newspaper The Daily Star described the occasion as "catharsis on a national scale".[14][20][21] Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani once wrote than when Fairuz sings, "mountains and rivers follow her voice, the mosque and the church, the oil jar and loaves of bread. Through her, every one of us is made to blossom, and once we were no more than sand; men drop their weapons and apologize. Upon hearing her voice, our childhood is molded anew."[12]

Political influence[edit]

Fairuz and the Rahbanis generally tried not to deliver any overt political messages,[22] despite that many of their works have been used on several occasions to further certain agendas.[23] Fairuz herself once admitted that some of her works have been interpreted that way.[24] A number of her songs were meant to be in solidarity with the Palestinian cause,[23][25] including "Flowers of All Cities", dedicated to Jerusalem, which she sang in 1967 as part of a song compilation titled Jerusalem on my Mind.[26][27] The song "We Will Return" has been adopted by Palestinians as their unofficial anthem.[7] Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish said that Fairuz and the Rahbanis did more for Palestine artistically than anyone else.[28]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The Baalbeck Festival committee claimed that one of the reasons why the Rahbanis couldn't participate was their concern that the lack of time to write a new play would oblige the Rahbanis to include older works.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Stone 2007, pp. 3.
  2. ^ Stone 2007, pp. 4.
  3. ^ Wazin & August 18, 1998.
  4. ^ Stone 2007, pp. 5–6.
  5. ^ a b Twair 1999.
  6. ^ Talhami 2013, pp. 127–128.
  7. ^ a b MacFarquhar 1999.
  8. ^ Rafei 2007.
  9. ^ Barak 2007.
  10. ^ Al Bawaba 2007.
  11. ^ a b Sinjab 2008.
  12. ^ a b c Blanford 2008.
  13. ^ Oweis 2008.
  14. ^ a b Black 2010.
  15. ^ Ganz 2010.
  16. ^ a b Aziz 2013.
  17. ^ The Daily Star & June 2013.
  18. ^ Bulos 2013.
  19. ^ a b McNamara 2013.
  20. ^ Mardelli 2012.
  21. ^ Al Arabiya 2008.
  22. ^ MacFarquhar 2013.
  23. ^ a b Aljack 2008.
  24. ^ The Milwaukee Journal 1989.
  25. ^ Zibawi 1994.
  26. ^ Hamdy 2014.
  27. ^ Zibawi 2014.
  28. ^ Stone on ArteEast 2007.

Sources[edit]

Arabic sources
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