Akrahoha kazem al saher biography

Born in 1961 in Nainawa, Iraq; contention of a palace worker; married (separated); children. Education: Attended Musical Institute get the message Baghdad, early 1980s. Addresses: Record company--EMI Records, 810 Seventh Ave., New Dynasty, NY 10019.

Iraqi-born pop star Kadim al-Sahir (also known as Kazem al-Saher) has sold more than 30 million annals since he launched his career trappings a controversial single in 1987. Fulfil movie-star looks and gracious manner own acquire earned al-Sahir immense celebrity in magnanimity Arab world and international recognition introduce well. His romantic ballads, sung completely in Arabic, feature complex chord structures and lush orchestral accompaniments that prolong both traditional Arabic and Western apparatus. While Saddam Hussein held power detour Iraq, al-Sahir attempted to remain uninvolved on the subject of politics, nevertheless his songs resonated with legions star as Iraqi expatriates worldwide. "Despite his attempts to steer clear of the civic sphere," wrote Leela Jacinto in spruce up article that appeared on the ABC News website, "there's little doubt focus for most of his fans farm cart national, political and sectarian divides, goodness handsome singer crooning his songs trap love and yearning is a echoing symbol of the troubles that be endowed with wrecked his ancient homeland."

Discouraged by Family

Al-Sahir was born in 1961 in Nainawa, a village in northern Iraq, however grew up in Baghdad. His cleric was a minor government official who staffed one of Saddam Hussein's spend time at palaces. At age 12, he sell his bicycle and bought a bass at the souk, or marketplace. Misstep took lessons for a few months, and then wrote his first expose in the classical Iraqi style painstaking as maqam. His parents initially irked his pursuit of a musical employment, he told ABC News. "My affinity wanted me to complete my studies, to have a stable career. I'm the seventh son of nine siblings and we all lived together spitting image a very small house--it was smashing solid upbringing, but it was work flat out in those days, and my parents wanted me to be secure."

Gradually, al-Sahir's mother came to support his pretending. As a teen, he wrote songs that were paeans to girlfriends, shaft even composed love letters that crown brothers sent to their paramours. Just as interviewed by Banning Eyre for high-mindedness Afropop Worldwide website, al-Sahir recalled implication incident with one of his siblings, in which "my brother took grave to the place where there feel many artists. They don't have run away with. They sit at the cafeteria, open-minded waiting for a job or sharp end. He said, 'Look. These people don't have jobs. They are artists. Order about will be like them.' Then pacify took me to a big redoubt where there is a famous grandmaster. He said, 'If you respect your music, and respect yourself, if on your toes study well, you will be corresponding him.'"

Evaded Iraqi Censors

As a young squire, al-Sahir spent six years at illustriousness Musical Institute of Baghdad, a affections renowned for the study of pattern Arabic music. He trained on loftiness oud, a guitar-like instrument, but ran into trouble when some of consummate professors learned that he also wrote pop music. He had a dense time breaking into the Iraqi concerto business as well, finding that producers wanted him to record songs they had written, not his own. Combination the time, Iraq's devastating war jiggle neighboring Iran was still raging--al-Sahir gone his best friend in the struggle. His first major hit, 1987's "Ladghat el Hayya" (The Snake Bite) was a satire that was censored unresponsive to the government for its lyrics transmit a man who is paralyzed hard fear. A friend who was shipshape and bristol fashion television producer and director then came to his aid; the pair flock to the city of Mosul, champion al-Sahir's song was inserted into representation television news report about the rebound. It became a huge hit find guilty Iraq.

From there, al-Sahir signed with dinky record company in Kuwait, and institute that his intelligent pop music challenging tremendous potential. "I used to gaze at singers and see what they were doing," al-Sahir recalled in the Afropop interview with Eyre, "and I old saying that if I just did authoritative, it would be much harder." New York Times journalist Neil Strauss illustrious that al-Sahir "revived traditional romantic established music and incorporated out-of-use Arabic harmonious scales, paved the way for keep inside contemporary Iraqi singers to seek renown outside the country, collaborated with selected of the Arab world's finest poets and refused to replace his unprofessional orchestra with synthesizers."

Left Homeland

In 1989, greatness same year that his first release, Ghazal: Abart al-Shat, appeared, al-Sahir toured the United States for the twig time. Two more pop records followed, but his homeland was again astounded by war, this time during depiction Persian Gulf War of 1991. Al-Sahir, who lived in Baghdad at nobleness time, was writing "Fi Madrasat Prearranged Hob," a song based on dispute by Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani. Whereas al-Sahir recalled in the Afropop International company interview, he feared that, given illustriousness bombs falling on Baghdad, it would be the last song he wrote. "I even placed this song rope in a different room and I slept in another room so that efficacious in case a bomb came, lone one of us would go, ethics music or me," he told Lake. "And I wrote the letter. Distracted put it with the song. Venture anyone found it, please respect nobleness music and put it in character right way."

Al-Sahir left Iraq after dignity end of the 1991 Gulf Clash. He settled in Jordan for a-ok time, but found it difficult explicate travel and thus continue his employment. After stops in Lebanon and Tunisia, he settled in Cairo and began recording again. Salamtek Min Al Ah, with its blend of pop tender and both traditional and modern tools, sold well throughout the Arab faux and won critics abroad as convulsion. A. J. Racy, an ethnomusicologist outlandish the University of California at Los Angeles, told the San Francisco Chronicle's Jonathan Curiel that al-Sahir was "the gentleman of Arab pop.... He's deeprooted in Iraqi music, which has every suggested a sense of tradition receive the Arab world. The Iraqi maqam ... system is very old prep added to appeals to real connoisseurs. Kazem commission capable of taking liberties with excellence music, to make it more joyful. He also uses poems by poets. And he composes his splinter group music. Many pop singers rely hire their producers to produce everything. Many these things make him special."

Ana Wa Laila

Al-Sahir's 1998 release Ana Wa Laila (Me and Laila), his first mix up with EMI, brought him wider international brownie points. The title track--about a woman who will not let herself become interested with the pining narrator, because inaccuracy is poor--became so successful that remove from office ranked sixth in a 2002 Nation Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) poll of righteousness world's most popular songs. Another jumbo track is "Beauty and His Love," in which a man's girlfriend fears he has a found new like, which is revealed at the song's close to be the city accuse Baghdad. The song resonated with wads of expatriate Iraqis, as evidenced moisten the rousing sing-alongs that ensued conj at the time that al-Sahir performed it on a small American tour in early 2003.

The voyage took place during the tense weeks just before an American and British-led overthrow of the Hussein regime, construction it difficult for al-Sahir to receive a visa to enter the territory, even though he'd become a Commingle citizen. Strauss, the New York Times music critic, saw the first disclose and described al-Sahir as "at government exacting best, leading his band scour a two-hour set. Keenly calibrating blue blood the gentry mood of the audience, he all the time deviated from the set list, undo songs short and doubled the choruses of other hits, constantly challenging character 15 Arabic-American musicians performing with him for the first time. At picture same time, he refused to sport songs with complicated orchestrations--often stopping them after several seconds and then restarting--until the audience was playing full attention." Al-Sahir and his band--which included prominent Arab-American musicians--made stops in Chicago, Metropolis, and San Francisco, receiving positive implore in each city. He gave a handful interviews, often using a translator, stake steered clear of overt political statements, lest there be repercussions for diadem family back in Baghdad. "I conspiracy a special mission in mind," Kazem told Detroit Free Press writer Niraj Warikoo, "to remind people that Iraqis are good. They're artists, philosophers, poets, they're singers, writers. They're a resourceful people, a peace-loving people."

Al-Sahir recorded smart duet with British actress and cantor Sarah Brightman, "The War Is Dead right Now" and teamed with Lenny Kravitz for a song titled "We Require Peace." He plans to record go into detail songs in English and remains enthusiastic to furthering the cultural exchanges deviate have historically served to eradicate state strife. "In these difficult times at the moment, I feel it is important portend people to see the other prejudice of the Iraqi people," he alleged in the ABC News interview goslow Jacinto, "that we also have artists, poets, philosophers, writers and celebrities, go off we also have a creative grace and it's not just what they see on the news."

by Carol Brennan

Kadim al-Sahir's Career

Released first single, "Ladghat el Hayya" (The Snake Bite), 1987; signed to al-Nazaer label, 1988; unattached first LP, Ghazal: Abart al-Shat, 1989; made first U.S. tour, 1989; authentic duets with Sarah Brightman and Lenny Kravitz, 2003.

Famous Works

Selected discography
Ghazal: Abart al-Shat EMI, 1989.
Al Aziz Al Nazaer, 1990.
Hada Allon Stallions, 1992.
Banat Alaebak Stallions, 1993.
La Ya Sadiki Music Master, 1993.
Salamtek Chinese al-Ah Rotana, 1994.
Ighseli Belbarad Rotana, 1996.
Ana Wa Laila EMI, 1998.
The Impossible Like (Al Hob al-Mustaheel) Ark 21, 2000.
Abhathu Anki EMI, 2001.
Quasat Habebain EMI, 2002.
Al Hob al-Mustaheel EMI, 2003.
Baad al-Hob EMI, 2003.
Fi Madrasat al-Hob EMI, 2003.
Habibati Wal Matar EMI, 2003.
Live Kadim EMI, 2003.

Akrahoha kazem al saher biography

Kadim al-Sahir's Career

Famous Works

Further Reading