Layla Murad

Layla Murad
Layla Murad in 1943
Background information
Birth name	Lillian Zaki Mordechai
Born	February 17, 1918 Cairo, Egypt
Died	21 November 1995(1995-11-21) (aged 77) Cairo, Egypt
Genres	Egyptian popular
Occupation(s)	Singer, Actor
Years active	1934-1963

Layla Murad (Arabic: ليلى مراد‎‎; Hebrew: לילה מוראד‎‎; February 17, 1918- November 21, 1995) was an Egyptian singer and actress, and one of the most prominent superstars in the Arabic-speaking world in her era. Born "Lillian Zaki Murad Mordechai" to a Jewish Family in Al Daher District, Cairo, Egypt, she later changed her name to Layla Murad as a stage-name. Layla married three times and converted to Islam in 1964.

Layla Murad was born in Cairo on February 17, 1918 to Ibrahim Zaki Mordechai and Gamilah Salmon. Her father was a respected singer, musician, and religious Jewish cantor, (Hazzan). Her mother was a Jewish Egyptian of Polish origins. One of her brothers, Mounir Mourad, was an actor and composer.

She made her first stage appearance, aged nine, at the Saalat Badi'a, one of Cairo's most successful music halls. The theatre had been founded in 1926 by the actress and dancer Badi'a Masabni, who became Mourad's patron. Her first film appearance, aged fifteen, was in the 1932 al-Dahaya (The Victims) which had originally been made as a silent film. Her song, "The Day of Departure", was added as part of the transformation of the production into a "talkie".

She was trained by her father and Dawood Hosni, who was also Jewish. Hosni had composed the first Operetta in the Arabic language, and he composed two songs for Leila: "Hairana Leh Bein El-Eloub" (Why can't you choose from among lovers), and "Howa el dala'a ya'ani khessam" (Does daliance mean avoiding me?). Further success came when the prominent Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab heard her singing and gave her a role in his film Yahia el Hob (Viva Love!) in 1938. In the six years following the success of Yahia el Hob she made five best selling films with director Togo Mizrahi, becoming Egypt's top actress. In 1945 she made Layla Bint al-Fuqara (Layla, daughter of the poor) directed by Anwar Wagdi whom she married shortly after. She went on to make a further 20 films of which the most outstanding is Ghazal al-Banat (The Flirtation of Girls), also directed and co-starring Wagdi. It also featured Nagib al-Rihani and Abdel Wahab in their last appearances on film.