Sabah, the ‘Empress of Lebanese Song’ who excelled in movies and music 

Sabah, the ‘Empress of Lebanese Song’ who excelled in movies and music 
Sabah on a film set in the early 1950s. (AFP)
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Updated 04 February 2023

Sabah, the ‘Empress of Lebanese Song’ who excelled in movies and music 

Sabah, the ‘Empress of Lebanese Song’ who excelled in movies and music 
  • For this week’s edition of our series on Arab icons, we profile one of the Arab world's most popular stars
  • Over a career spanning seven decades, the Lebanese legend appeared in almost 100 films and released more than 50 albums 

DUBAI: “Empress of Lebanese Song,” “Sabbouha” and “Al-Shahroura” (The Singing Bird). These are just some of the nicknames given to the Lebanese singer and actress Sabah, whose remarkable career spanned seven decades.  

Sabah was born Jeanette Georges Feghali in November 1927 in Bdadoun near Mount Lebanon. She was the youngest of three daughters. Her family life was troubled — her father reportedly bullied and neglected her, and even tried to steal her earnings from her early movies. She once told an interviewer that she was crying one day because she hadn’t had any food and one of her uncles told her parents “that I had a beautiful voice when I sobbed.” Her traumatic childhood only got worse when her brother murdered their mother because he believed she was having an affair. 




Sabah in the 1958 film 'La Rue de L'Amour.' (Image credit: Abboudi Bou Jawde)

It was her talent that offered her a way out. Sabah started singing aged four, and released her first song in 1940, aged just 13.  

Five years later, she starred in her first movie, the Egyptian film “El-Qalb Luh Wahid” (The Heart Has Its Reasons) and adopted her character’s name — Sabah (morning). Still a teenager, she quickly became famous across the Arab world. She went on to star in almost 100 movies and release more than 50 albums, becoming internationally famous — performing in Paris, London, Sydney and New York. She reportedly had around 3,500 songs in her repertoire and carried on performing well into her eighties, finally retiring in 2010 due to illness. She died in Lebanon on Nov. 26, 2014, at the age of 87. 

Egyptian filmmaker Ahmed Shafik made “El-Shahrourah,” a TV drama based on her life (Sabah was played by Lebanese singer and actress Carole Samaha), which aired in Ramadan in 2011. For background, Shafik talked with Sabah for hours about her life.  

“I grew up listening to Sabah. She is a great artist, a great singer, a great actress. It was an incredible feeling the first time I went to meet her,” Shafik told Arab News. 




A picture from the late 1960s (R to L) Sabah with Egyptian actresses Leila Taher and Maryam Fakhreddine shooting a movie in Alexandria. (AFP)

“The (show) was based on her words. We — (writer) Fedaa El-Shandawily and I — sat with her in the hotel she stayed in until she died, and we would visit her daily. When the show was written, we read the episodes for her and it was exactly what she said,” he continued. “Her life was full of suspense and a lot of drama. At times, Sabah would tell us stories and cry, and at times she would recall memories and laugh.”  

After the show aired, Sabah’s family reportedly filed lawsuits against the production house. But, according to Shafik, none of the cases came to trial because he had the recordings of his interviews with Sabah.  

“Sabah herself did not file a lawsuit,” he noted. “Sabah cared for her professional career and did not care for her personal life, her family.” 

The singer married 10 times and was rumored to be in multiple relationships throughout her life. “She was trying to find stability and make a family. Most of the men in her life wanted the rich and famous Sabah — not a family,” Shafik said.  

In 2021, Sabah was among the Arab female artists featured in the Arab World Institute’s six-month exhibition, “Arab Divas, from Umm Kulthum to Dalida.” Maïa Tahiri, CEO of glob.art, the cultural platform that helped support the exhibition, told Arab News, “Umm Kulthum, Warda Al-Jazairia, Asmahan, Fayrouz, Sabah, Dalida … (these women) have influenced not only several generations but have created a bridge across cultures. It was very moving to see daughters with their mothers and grandmothers at the exhibition, sharing their memories and ideas, rocked by the famous songs of these incredible women who contributed so much to the Golden Age of the Arab world. 

“Sabah is an icon, not just in the Middle East or the Arab World,” Tahiri added. “The fact that she acted in almost 100 movies and interpreted approximately 3,500 songs explains her global fame… Her freedom, her frankness and her love for fashion also explain the fascination people still have when it comes to her.” 

Tahiri said that throughout her lustrous career, Sabah remained faithful to her dressmaker, William Khoury. “Even though she mostly performed in Egypt, it was extremely important to her to have her stage costumes made in her homeland, Lebanon. The exhibition put forward a large panel of Sabah’s outfits, revealing her appreciation for boldness,” she said.  

That boldness carried over from her risqué dress sense to her personality. Lebanese radio presenter Chady Maalouf, who met Sabah many times between 2001 and her death in 2014, told Arab News, “Dealing with Sabah meant dealing with a very professional star, whether in punctuality, commitment or frankness and clarity in the answers.”  




Sabah with the Lebanese couturier William Khoury in 1974. (Image credit: Madonna Khoury)

Sabah, he said, “was one of the first to carry the Lebanese dialect — through her songs — to Egypt and the Arab world, bringing it closer to the Arab public at a time when the Egyptian dialect was dominant in the world of singing and acting.” 

Maalouf’s favorite interview with the star was his first, recorded in her house at the time in Hazmieh. “Sabah was always elegant, even at home,” he said. “The dominant color of the furniture and curtains was turquoise. She showed me some of her (ornaments) after our interview. One was a gift from Fayrouz and Assi Rahbani, and another piece was from the Egyptian actress Soheir Ramzi.” 




Sabah performing in Alexandria in 2003. (AFP)

An interview in 2006 he recalled “was one of the few times I saw Sabah sad. She had tears in her eyes, because our meeting coincided with an Israeli attack on Lebanon, and rumors were circulating in the press that she was celebrating her birthday when the country was being bombed.”  

The conversation that has stuck with Maalouf the most, though, was when he asked Sabah why she didn’t move to the US where her daughter, son and two grandchildren lived.  

“She replied: ‘I love them all very much, but there I will feel that I’ve become merely a grandmother and forget my glory, and that I am Sabah. I love myself and don’t like to be insignificant.’ Then she added, ‘I’m not selfish, but I love the artist in me,’” Maalouf said. 

“I believe that this phrase really sums up her life: Janet Feghali loved Sabah and lived for Sabah. And she did it well.” 


Sudan’s speciality ‘bittersweet’ Ramadan drink

In Sudan, the brew is so identified with Ramadan that even the US embassy took to Twitter to promote its staff making it.
In Sudan, the brew is so identified with Ramadan that even the US embassy took to Twitter to promote its staff making it.
Updated 26 March 2023

Sudan’s speciality ‘bittersweet’ Ramadan drink

In Sudan, the brew is so identified with Ramadan that even the US embassy took to Twitter to promote its staff making it.
  • In Sudan, the arduously made “helo-murr,” which means “bittersweet,” is a drink synonymous with Ramadan
  • It can be found on almost every table across the northeast African country at the end of the day’s fast

OM ESHR, Sudan: As generations of Sudanese have done before her, Wissal Abdel Ghany crouched next to a fire to prepare a traditional drink, a thirst-quenching favorite enjoyed during the fasting month of Ramadan.
In Sudan, the arduously made “helo-murr,” which means “bittersweet,” is a drink synonymous with the Islamic holy month.
It can be found on almost every table across the northeast African country at the end of the day’s fast.
“Without it, our table feels empty,” said Abdel Ghany, wearing a bright orange headscarf.
She sat in a small room in the village of Om Eshr, on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum, which teemed with a small force of women busily scraping and spreading a mixture before serving the beverage in clear glasses.
The drink has satisfied thirsty fasters for decades and recipes are “inherited from our mothers and grandmothers,” the 43-year-old said.
Corn is harvested and left to dry in the sun before being ground and mixed with spices such as fenugreek, cumin or even hibiscus — Sudan’s other essential Ramadan beverage.
This mixture is then soaked in sugar and water for several days.
Abdel Ghany spread a layer of the thick brown paste over a grill plate above the coals of a wood fire, cooking it into a thin, leather-colored film.
The resulting crepe-like layer is then peeled away and stored — ready to be soaked in the final step to create the beloved drink.
Served as cold as possible, the drink is one of many ways that fasting Sudanese cool off, a significant challenge in one of the world’s hottest countries.
The daytime fasting month of Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam.
Observant Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk, after which they traditionally gather with family and friends to break their fast.
In Sudan, the brew is so identified with Ramadan that even the US embassy took to Twitter to promote its staff making it, with diplomats wielding wooden spoons over embers and sipping the amber liquid.
Abdel Ghany said preparing the drink is a collective effort, bringing “together our sisters and friends.”
“We make it together to share among ourselves,” she said.
In Sudan’s cities, she added, some people don’t make it themselves.
“But they still have to offer it for dinner, so they buy it ready-made,” she said.
For Abdel Ghany, the preparation of helo-murr and the holy month cannot be separated.
“All it takes is a whiff of the scent coming out of a home to know that Ramadan is here,” she said.


London’s Victoria & Albert Museum hosts ‘open iftar’ for hundreds

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum hosts ‘open iftar’ for hundreds
Updated 26 March 2023

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum hosts ‘open iftar’ for hundreds

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum hosts ‘open iftar’ for hundreds

DUBAI: More than 500 people flocked to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on Friday for an ‘Open Iftar’ event organized by the Ramadan Tent Project charity.

“Ramadan 2023 marks 10 phenomenal years of the Ramadan Tent Project and our signature Open Iftar events. Over the past nine years, our humble tent on a patch of green grew and grew, before it traveled to landmark locations,” the project said.

Similar events will take place this year at Shakespeare’s Globe theater, Wembley Stadium, Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium and the Royal Albert Hall.

“The theme to mark our 10-year anniversary is ‘Belonging’. For the past decade we’ve connected and convened over half a million people from all backgrounds. Our passion in bridging between different communities is rooted in sharing our authentic selves with the world. 

“True belonging shouldn’t require you to change who you are – rather, it’s to celebrate who you are,” read an additional statement on the website.

Since 2013, the Open Iftar events have hosted more than 500,000 people across the UK at some of the country’s most iconic cultural spaces including Trafalgar Square, the BALTIC Museum, Bradford’s Centenary Square and Coventry Cathedral.
 


Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad strikes again with second custom look for Taylor Swift on ‘Eras’ tour 

Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad strikes again with second custom look for Taylor Swift on ‘Eras’ tour 
Updated 26 March 2023

Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad strikes again with second custom look for Taylor Swift on ‘Eras’ tour 

Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad strikes again with second custom look for Taylor Swift on ‘Eras’ tour 

DUBAI: After revealing that he designed US pop sensation Taylor Swift’s showstopping ballgown for the “The Eras Tour” just last week, Lebanese couturier Zuhair Murad is back with yet another unique look for her latest stop in Las Vegas.  

The 33-year-old wore a shimmering dark blue outfit, with embellishment and fringe detailing, paired with knee-high boots. 

“@TaylorSwift wore for The Eras Tour Las Vegas Opening Night a custom #ZMCouture midnight blue crystal embellished bodysuit, overflowing with richly beaded fringes and a matching garter,” posted the label’s official Instagram account, sharing a picture of the glittering outfit.  

The Grammy Award-winning singer -- who kicked off her first trek in more than four years at Glendale, Arizona's State Farm Stadium last weekend -- belted out her top hits at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Friday and Saturday in a three-hour show  that ran through hits from every era of her 17-year career. 

At the Glendale concert, Swift donned a custom-made gown by Murad in a peachy hue with starburst sequin work across the length of the creation.


Fashion lovers show off race-day attire at Dubai World Cup

Fashion lovers show off race-day attire at Dubai World Cup
Updated 26 March 2023

Fashion lovers show off race-day attire at Dubai World Cup

Fashion lovers show off race-day attire at Dubai World Cup
  • Saudi Arabia-based influencer Tamaraah Al-Gabbani paid tribute to the Kingdom’s upcoming smart city NEOM with an attention-grabbing headpiece
  • Tunisian model Rym Saidi showed off a red ensemble by Italian label Fendi

DUBAI: Fashion lovers from across the Middle East and beyond descended on the Dubai World Cup on Saturday to take in the horse races and show off their race-day attire.

Saudi Arabia-based influencer Tamaraah Al-Gabbani paid tribute to the Kingdom’s upcoming smart city NEOM with an attention-grabbing headpiece that was inspired by the architecture of the project.

She also showed off a dress by celebrity-loved Lebanese label Azzi & Osta.

“I have attended the #DubaiWorldCup for the majority of my life and I’m so happy to be back again. My hat this year is a heartfelt ode to Saudi Arabia’s project @discoverneom The Line and sustainability. Nazgul Nejmi, my hat designer has always been inspired by the architecture of exceptional developments, and given this year’s emphasis on being the year of sustainability, what better example than Neom’s The Line,” Al-Gabbani posted on Instagram.

Meanwhile, Tunisian model Rym Saidi showed off a red ensemble by Fendi, which celebrity stylist Cedric Haddad paired with a Virginie.O headpiece.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Rym Saidi (@rymsaidi)


Georgina Rodriguez stars in advert for Saudi fragrance brand Laverne

Georgina Rodriguez stars in advert for Saudi fragrance brand Laverne
Updated 26 March 2023

Georgina Rodriguez stars in advert for Saudi fragrance brand Laverne

Georgina Rodriguez stars in advert for Saudi fragrance brand Laverne

DUBAI: Argentine model, and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo’s long-time partner, Georgina Rodriguez has collaborated with Saudi perfume label Laverne on a new campaign — and she answers candid questions about her time in the Kingdom in the new clip.

 Riyadh-based Rodriguez says “I feel very safe in this country and really appreciate its family values” in the stylish video posted on social media on Saturday.  

“I felt very happy to be able to connect with this heaven on Earth. The power and magic that is in the Saudi desert is incredible,” she said when asked her thoughts on visiting the country’s desert region earlier this year.

The model went on to share her excitement about experiencing Ramadan in Saudi Arabia in the advert that is promoting the label’s latest scent, Blue Laverne.

Laverne ships across the GCC.

On Thursday, the model was announced as the ambassador for Arab brand Amara Lenses, available in the Gulf region.