Baligh Hamdi
| Baligh Hamdi | |
|---|---|
Baligh Hamdi ca. 1970
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| Background information | |
| Native name | بليغ حمدي |
| Born | 7 October 1931 |
| Origin | Shubra, Cairo, Egypt |
| Died | 17 September 1993 Cairo, Egypt |
| Occupation(s) | Composer |
Baligh Hamdi (Arabic: بليغ حمدي) (7 October 1931 – 17 September 1993) was an Egyptian composer who created hit songs for many prominent Arabic singers, especially during the 1960s and 1970s.
Born Baligh Abdel Hamid Hamdi Morsi on 7 October 1931 Shubra district of Cairo. His father was a professor of physics at King Fuad I University (now Cairo University). He learned to play the violin at age nine, and the oud two or three years later. He took music lessons with a variety of teachers throughout childhood and teenage years. He became a professional musician in 1954 at age 22. Immediately prior to that, he had been a law student, and he chose to not complete the studies for the law degree.
He started his musician career as singer. But very soon he turned to composing, and his compositions got good acceptance in the mid-1950s. In the late 1950s, the then-famous Oum Kalthoum sang his composition "Hob Eih" and it was a hit. Some other of Baligh Hamdi's early compositional successes include "Why no", sung by Faydah Kamel, the song "Ma Thbinish Be Al Shakl Dah (Don't love me like that)" by Fayza Ahmed and the song "Tkhounoh ([How do you] Betray [my heart])" by Abdel Halim Hafez. For the next two decades he was one of the most popular, successful, and productive composers in the Arab world.
Baligh Hamdi frequently said that he drew upon musical ideas and aesthetics in Egyptian folk melodies and rhythms in composing his songs. He also drew on ideas that were floating around in the contemporary music of his time. His sound has a classical flavor due to the heavy use of the string orchestra. But he also made some use of electronic keyboards and guitars in harmony with the strings, or alternating with the strings, in many songs.
His best work is published as recordings under the name of the singer. The singers include Oum Kalthoum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Shadia, Layla Murad, Najat Al Saghira,Fayza Ahmed, Warda (he was married to Warda for about a decade), Sabah (Sabah married seven times, and he was one of her husbands), and other singers.
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