SamirCanada
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RIP... Wadih al safi
Sadly the great legend of arabic music and lebanese folklore has passed away today.
RIP, Allah yirhamo
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Alfaraby
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Wadee'a Alsafi
(1/11/1921-11/10/2013)
The last of the giants, one of a kind tenor, composer and accomplished oud player.
A great loss indeed 
If it was only possible I'd rush to Beirut to pay tribute to the man, who made us happy for more than 70 years of quality music.
May he rest in peace
Coming up a CV of Wadeea's beginnings written by no other than Wadee'a Alsafi himself, to be published for the first time in English through our
forums.
لن ننساك أيها الوديع
Yours indeed
Alfaraby
alfarabymusic@gmail.com
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hamed
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Allah yerhamo.
The best voice ever.
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fadel
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الله يرحمة
Allah yrhamo
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Alfaraby
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The LEGEND:
Don't miss
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3vs8bwkGuEY&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3...
The one and only !
Yours indeed
Alfaraby
alfarabymusic@gmail.com
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Adel Salameh
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Allah Yirhamak Abou Fadi....what can I say, the best Arab singer of all time....I love his voice...
Adel
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Adel Salameh
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rest in peace Abou Fadi
http://youtu.be/E089zQb-GH0
Adel
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Alfaraby
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Quote: Originally posted by Alfaraby  | | Coming up a CV of Wadeea's Coming up a CV of Wadeea's beginnings written by .. no other than Wadee'a Alsafi himself, to be published for the first
time in English through our forum. |
Sorry I forgot this, but better late than never.
So here's Wadeea's beginnings to whom it may concern and for whom he might be looking for some info about the immortal legend.
* Summarized, edited and translated from a 40 pages or so inreview with Dr. Victor Sahab in his book Wadee'a Al Safi; Kalemat Publishing; Beirut,
1996.
My Beginnings
(1921-1974)
By: Wadde'a Al Safi *
I'm Wadee'a, the son of Bishara Joseph Gabriel Francis, born in November 1st, 1921 in Niha - Shouf. I was the second son in order, born to my late
father and my mother Shafika Alo'gail . My elder brother Tawfiq was born in 1919, then I was born two years later, then five sisters, Linda, Mary,
Joan of Arc, Therese and Nadia, aka Hana'a Alsafy -a famous singer by her own- then my younger brother Elia, who was born in 1947.
My father was born in 1895 and my mother was born in 1903 ; My father has worked as an officer in the gendarmerie, the days were the days of the
French mandate. My brothers Tawfiq and Elia have inherited this job from my father . They both were officers, while Elia was also the conductor of a
military orchestra.
My grandfather ,Abu Bishara, was born in 1870, and married to my grandmother, a daughter of Joseph Karam's family from a neighboring village called
A'reh . She was a courageous woman and raised my uncles and my father to be just like her. She was a great cook and a skilled stor-teller, & her
fairy tales are still engraved in my memory. On the other hand, my grandfather Abu Bishara was a folk singer and a poet who had had a beautiful voice
and taught me Zajal (kind of folk song). My grandfather was a peasant, traveled to Brazil twice or three times to earn money and got back to buy more
land in Niha.
My first encounter with music was along with my uncle Nimer Shadeed Al O'gail who has first taught me to play the oud. I used to play the rabab then
some violin and last came the oud. From the moment I held the oud, we have never separated until this very moment. My uncle used to accompany me to
concerts and taught me how to sing and play.
My grandfather began to teach me Zajal and other types of folk songs and I started listening to the great poets of those days: Asa'ad Al Fghaly
(Sabah's uncle) and Rashid Nakhle'. I didn't know them in person, but I've read their poems and heard them so I became very fond of them like I was
fond of my own father and grandfather and they became a part of me. Fghali was a giant singer who had a beautiful voice and used to sing his poems
along with other giants such as Anis Rohana, Ali Hajj and others, but their voices weren't as great as his.
After my father's resignation from the gendarmerie and our move to Beirut in 1935, I began learning the oud at Alexei Ladqani, who taught me my first
pieces: Tehmilet Biat and Hijaz.
In Beirut I attended The Savior's School, in which I spent only two years, singing at the school's choir. Ataba (improvised chant) has trained my
voice, so the choir's tunes were much easier for me than to my fellows of the choire. I quickly became the star of the school's choir. Before Ataba, I
once heard one of Abdel Wahab's songs and found out it was very hard for me, but after I started to sing Ataba, Abdel Wahab's song became "a piece of
cake". Before I started to sing, I also chanted at the church, so the two sources were the most important tributaries that have supplied my singing
later on.
Two years later my father had asked us, my brother Tawfiq and I, to leave school in order to work and contribute to support our large family, since
the pension of the gendarmerie was not enough to meet the needs of the family. I was 15 years old at the time, so the primary stage was all the formal
education I ever had.
I worked at a shoes shop and in a barber shop, and then worked in a brick factory and glass. In 1937, my parents encouraged me to apply to the radio
so I did and got accepted. In the radio station I was taught by Michel Khayat and Salim Al Helo. They taught me the correct poetry, melody and
rhythm, composition and Mowashahat. Michel was fond of Sayed Darwish and Zakaria Ahmad, so I learned from him the two great composers' soul in
composition. In 1938 I won the first prize playing the oud, composing and singing when I was barely seventeen years of age.
In 1940, during World War II, Salim Helu held a singing competition featuring the top singers at that time, like Saber Alsafh and Mustafa Kreidieh
among others, but I won the first prize. During all that time, I heard the music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab and wached his films with Laila Murad , Najat
Ali and others and learnt his melodies by heart. I would not have slept until I discovered the melodies and know where they should be played.
In the late late thirties I also started to listen to Umm Kulthum through her records and films. I barely listened to any other singers, except maybe
for Asmahan. Abdul Wahab educated me in terms of performance while watching his films over and over again. I was a fan of Abdul Wahab's "against" Umm
Kulthum and I loved his singing because it was stylish and elegant and for me, such style is very easy to recite and sing. At first I did not grasp
Umm Kulthum and only at a late stage, I discovered and became fond of her, especially with Riad Sunbati's melodies .
At those early years, I learned how to write note scores, the Turkish way, but it did not last long and soon was replaced by the method known today,
but my nerves could no longer afford to learn from the beginning, so I turned to the science of melody.
I took what I have learnt in my childhood and my youth, such as Ataba and Mijana, put it on the oud and "attacked" Beirut.
In 1940 I began professionalism in Aldoorah, a district of the north - eastern Beirut, where people used to visit for picnic and where singers
performed at the cafes. Aldoorah was a Fun Center where singers came to present their "muscles" . Some used to sing for free and some would sing for
three pounds per night, but I got ten pounds per night and then fifteen pounds. In order to know the value of the Lebanese pound I'd mention that my
brother Tawfiq bought me an oud for five pounds. It was rather important to start my journey towards professionalism at the café of Joseph Sa'adeh,
where I met Sabah for the first time while she was still fifteen of age. She came to sing for the first time at the cafe, what her uncle Asa'ad Al
Fghali, had taught her.
In 1941, I travelled with Laure Dakkash to Aleppo . Bahia Wehbe, aka Wadad joined us, while she was still a young girl, but her sense was beautiful so
she fascinated me with her singing. This was the first time I've been to Aleppo.
In 1945 I met in café "Alpariziana" Mr. Abu Nicola Badran, Alexandra Badran's father, famous as Noor Al Huda, who was singing there. Abu Nicola
asked me if I like to travel to Egypt and I said yes, so he let me meat Youssef Wahba, who was preparing to starring with Noor Al Huda, so he'd push
me in with them in the movie, so I moved to Cairo.
I went to my relatives in Cairo, Dakkash family in Shubra, the relatives of the famous singer Laure Dakkash, who have hosted me and arranged some
concerts for me. I also started to serve at the local Church. Sabah had preceded me to Cairo so we started to sing at private nightlife. Tala'at Pasha
Harb who was the governor of the Bank of Egypt, used to invite us to such nights . Now, I can't recall the reason that led me to take a role in the
Egyptian film "The Five Pounds". Perhaps it was Ahmed Al Hafnawy, the famous violinist, who had whispered to the film producer, Mrs. Bahiga Hafez,
that there is a Lebanese singer in the neighborhood, so they brought me and I sang with the singers, one verse saying "I came to you from Lebanon" or
something like that; and I was paid thirty five Egyptian pounds for my role.
During my stay in Cairo, Mr. Badran took me to Abdul Wahab in his office at the Twfiqeyyah quarter in Cairo and said: "I brought you a voice, there's
no voice like it in the whole world" ! Abdel Wahab asked me what do you sing ?" I said: "Al Fann" (one of his greatest compositions) which he had
sung only two days ago. I sang in front of him and changed the style singing the word "Ya Lail" so he asked me to repeat it twenty times, then later
on, he started singing it the same like I did.
My stay in Cairo did not meet my ambitions and I did not do anything important there. Once, I was introduced by coincidence to the artist Nagib Rihani
in a café and he asked me what am I doing in Cairo ? I answered that I'm trying my luck. He said that the conditions are not favorable at that point
and advised me to go back to my country and come back later. I felt that I will be humiliated in Egypt, so I borrowed five pounds from the Lebanese
singer Mohamed Al Bakkar, who was a resident of Cairo, and the rest from Abu Nicola Badran, took the advice of Rihani and returned to Lebanon after a
13 months stay in Cairo.
I returned to Lebanon in 1946 to work with the Rahbani Brothers in Nagib A'tieh nightclub in Bechara El Khoury Street on Damascus Road, downtown
Beirut. The private audience came to hear me and and Rahbani brothers: Asi Rahbany accompanying me on bouzouq and Mansour on violin. I sang Mejana and
Ataba as well as new songs of Abdul Wahab and other Egyptian songs, as well as the great Ma'anna (another improvised sort of folk song) and I was paid
eight pounds per night. At that time I had read a poem, I liked so much, of the poet Asa'ad Al Seba'ali entitled Tall Essabah (the morning peeped and
the sparrow ticked), so I set the needed music and started to sing it with great success.
In Najib Attieh's nightclub, I was introduced to an expatriate Lebanese wealthy named Camille Creidy who was playing the piano and loved music and
singing. He advised me to try my luck in Brazil and even paid for my ticket on board.
World War had come to an end when my family had lived in a rented house which belonged to Mr. Ma'arouf Qleilat who was our friend and loved my voice.
We were not always able to pay the rent in a timely manner, but Ma'arouf didn't demand and graciously accepted delays.
I could not bear this situation, so I thought I'd travel and come back to buy a house to help my father get rid of the rent, or do not come back at
all. In 1947 I left Lebanon with only one pound in my pocket. I took it out of my pocket and said to my sister Joan of Arc, who was crying at the
harbor: this pound is between me and Lebanon and I'll see what comes up between us. I sailed and never looked back while the ship was cruising away
from the port of Beirut. On the ship I met two female singers: Hanan and Nihad Bashalny, so I took the advantage of the long journey to train them
how to sing and their abilities improved. Hanan was a tremendous singer and much more important than Nihad.
My trip to Brazil was suicidal: either to come back holding the price of a house or do not come back at all. My trip was the first of a Lebanese
artist after the WW2, so I was welcome with joy and tears and made wonders there, financially aswell. Tall Essabah was accepted with great success in
Lebanon,so I took it with me to Brazil and spread it among expatriates there. There I started to sing it, along with Ma'anna, Mijana , Ataba and great
poems from the classical Arabic poetry.
I came back from my successful trip to Brazil in 1950 . I was determined to marry after I turned thirty and after I was convinced that I was unable to
marry a Lebanese expatriate. I was married in 1951, nine months after my return from Brazil and we had our eldest daughter Donia born in 1952, then
Marilyn (1954), Fadi (1957), Tony (1960), George (1961) and Milad (1967).
I returned to Beirut in 1950 and came to Halim El Roumi on the radio where he said to me: "Don't sing Tarab songs; we want Zajal with your voice, and
the Tarab shall come later". The man was ritgh for my benefit and the audience's. Great works like Karnak & Gondoul of Wahab had disappeared from
the radio and was replaced by mild songs like Farid al-Atrash's, so I was confused. My audience has forgotten me since we sang on the radio in live
performances and was not recorded; thus a lot of Lebanese - and Egyptian - heritage was lost.
I knew that times have changed and I have to come up with something new, thus the idea of " A'alloma " song was born, which was welcomed with
unprecedented success. Lebanese song was not clear at the time and was mostly equivocal and vague, despite the efforts of the pioneers like Nicola Al
Manny, Elia Beida, Elias Rubeiz, Sami Sidawi and others. They started the local song but it was still perplexing between Iraqi, Syrian, Palestinian
and Egyptian moods. My colleagues and I just completed what the pioneers have started.
In the fifties we used to sing our heritage of Mawawil Mijana, Ataba, DAla'ona and Ma'anna and few other songs, but the greatest legacy started from
1959 season onward. I participated in Ba'albek festival with Fairouz, and thus the festivals era in my career began.
When the ugly civil war broke out in Lebanon back in 1958, I traveled to Panama in my second trip to make the necessary living for my family in that
period of cruel incidents. Panama trip was not successful at all; I was homeless, sick and hungry stranger there, so I asked help from a friend of
mine, who graciously sent me the needed money to secure my return to my homeland. Thus I came back in 1959.
I had not seen a festival before, but my wife had watched one and told me. The Rahbany Brothers had experimented it in 1957 in Baalbek with great
success. I wasn't really in the mood for festivals in the first place because I thaught that the whole summer season, will be wasted for some 15
thousand pounds, while I could earn 100 - 125 thousand pounds during the same season, (Dollar exchange rate was 2 Lebanese pounds). I said to myself:
I have served Lebanon in the exile so much and it's time for me to care for my own interests and leave the opportunity to someone else to serve
Lebanon through festivals!
Then the Lebanese President at that time Mr. Camille Sham'oun asked me to participate in the coming Ba'albek International festival, a request I just
could not refuse. I took a major role with Fairouz in 1959 festival in a musical called "The Wedding at the Village", then with Sabah in 1960 and 12
more festivals, between 1959-1974. The second civil war broke out in 1975 and literally killed these beautiful years and the whole musical project
went under siege. The Civil War burned every green branch in the country not only the show-business, so I left to Paris where I spent most of the
coming 15 years. When the war ended at last, I came back to Beirut where I still live with my family.
RIP dear Abu Fadi
Yours indeed
Alfaraby
alfarabymusic@gmail.com
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SamirCanada
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Thank you for this Alfaraby. it was a lovely read.
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Giorgioud
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Sad day for music. He is the singer of one of my top 10 favourite pieces ever, "Alla Allah Ta'oud". Rest In Peace. One of the giants, no doubt about
that.....
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Alfaraby
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Thanks friends. Very sad indeed to lose this giant, but his art shall stay alive forever.
A good question: What is the greatest piece of Al Safi ?
I wonder what do you think guys ?
Yours indeed,
Alfaraby
alfarabymusic@gmail.com
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SamirCanada
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For me it's tallou hbabna. Maybe it's a simple one and he isn't even the composer but when I think wadea I immediately think this one.
http://youtu.be/LoUW9dfshFU
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ameer
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One of my more obscure favorites is Endaq Bab ElBait: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyUUUNGleYU
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