Fairouz is a legend to whom singers today wish to be compared. After a four-year hiatus, the singer née Nouhad Haddad returned to stage, performing at the Beirut International Entertainment and Leisure (BIEL) Center on Thursday and Friday.
Out of the 14,000 seats of the concert, 6,000 were snapped up on the first day, Abdo El-Husseini, sales director at Virgin Megastore told AFP. The sold-out concert, titled “Eh, Fi Amal” (Yes, There is Hope), was held to promote with the upcoming release of Fairouz’s album of the same name.
The songs on the album were written and composed by her son Ziad Rahbani, who also took charge of the distribution of the album. At a symposium at Cairo Jazz Festival last year, Rahbani had said they had not found a distributor to market Fairouz’s album. He held Arab production and distribution companies responsible for "the incompletion of important musical works in the Arab world."
The concert took place in the context of a dispute between Fairouz and heirs of her husband’s brother Mansour Rahbani regarding property rights to the music of Rahbani brothers.
Fairouz’s last performance took place at the 2003 Beit Eddin festival in Lebanon, and in 2006 she revived the Rahbani brothers’ play “Sah El-Nom.” The legal disputes began after this play, where Fairouz was criticized of producing without the prior consent or financial consideration of Mansour Rahbani.
The memory of Rahbani brothers was honored at the concert as Fairouz accompanied the chorus in Rahbani classics, Daily Star Lebanon reported, adding that the CD also paid tribute to Assi and Mansour Rahbani with the song “Bektob Asamiyon” (I Write the Names), a remake of the famous “Bektob Ismak” (I Write Your Name).
Songs performed from the album included “Eh, Fi Amal,” a waltz both mourning and mocking a lost love, and “Ma Shawaret Hali” (I Did Not Consult Myself) critical of assumptions that women should marry early. The songs carrying Rahbani’s signature touch of irony and defiance of convention have already found their way online at http://www.youtube.com/user/fairouzsongs.
