Beirut, November 2 (BNA) One of the most famous singers in the Arab world, Sabah Fakhri, who entertained generations with traditional songs and preserved extinct forms of Arabic music, passed away. He was 88 years old.
Born in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 1933, Sabah Abu Qoss got his stage name as a teenager when he began performing, according to the Associated Press.
He quickly rose to fame, becoming one of the legends of the Arab world and one of its exceptionally attractive artists.
Fakhri was a world-renowned singer of tarab, a form of Arabic music associated with an emotional evocation that can last for hours.
On stage, Fakhri would engage the audience and swing to the music almost in a coma, converting the lyrics of his songs, often in Standard Arabic, to refrain from singing along with him easily.
He performed once for 10 straight hours in 1968 in a concert in Caracas, Venezuela, without a single interruption, and earned an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.
Throughout his career, Fakhri has preserved and disseminated traditional forms of Arabic singing and music, including Qudoud Halabiya, his hometown of Aleppo.
Fakhri’s voice was so powerful and distinct, he once told interlocutors that his family recognized him when he was a child.
“I started singing when I was born,” he once told an interviewer for Egypt’s CBC channel. A loved one used to pinch him to hear him cry because he “loved the sound of my crying.”
He would memorize the Qur’an when he was young and start reciting it in mosques – a common path for a number of musicians and singers in the Arab world. Because of his powerful voice, Fakhri worked briefly as the muezzin – the person who calls for prayer – in a mosque in Aleppo.
Fakhri studied music and singing in Aleppo and Damascus. He received several decorations in the Arab world and was the captain of the Syrian Artists Syndicate.
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