Mohamed Abdu
| Mohammed Abdu | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | The Artist of The Arabs |
| Born |
12 June 1949 jazan, Saudi Arabia |
| Genres | Saudi Arabian, Arabic Music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Composer |
| Instruments | Oud, vocal |
| Years active | 1961–present |
| Labels | Rotana |
| Associated acts | Talal Maddah, Abo Bakr Salim, Farid al-Atrash, Umm Kulthum, Warda Al-Jazairia, Nasser Al Qasabi, Baligh Hamdi, Ahlam, Assala Nasri, Balqees Ahmed Fathi, Abadi Al-Johar, Nabil Shuail, Myriam Fares, Latifa, Aryam, Khaled, Mohamed Mounir |
| Website | Mohammed Abdu Official Website |
| Notable instruments | |
| Various Maurice Ouds | |
This article is mainly or partly translated from the
Mohammed Abdu Othman Al-Aseeri, (Arabic: محمد عبده عثمان العسيري ) (born June 12, 1949) is well-known Saudi singer all across the Middle East. He had been described as "The Artist of Arabs"."
Mohammed Abdu was born June 12, 1949, in Abha the capital of Aseer province. His father Abdou Othman Al-A'asiri was a poor fisherman in Tuhamat, Asir area who had six children with his wife Salma Nasr-Allah. Smallpox was epidemic in Arabia at that time, and almost all of their children died including a three-year-old 'Mohammed'. The couple vowed to name their next child in memory of him. After that sad incident, the family decided to move to Jeddah where the 'other' Mohammed was born. His father left his job as a fisherman and took a new one as a bricklayer. But, soon the father left them in 1953 after he fell ill, and dying before Mohammed could take his first steps.
As an orphan aged only 3, Mohammed went with his widowed mother and her other two siblings to an orphanage house called Ribat Abu-Zinadah; a Yemenite hostel for orphaned families. With the financial help of the soon to be crown prince Faisal, her children were accepted into one of the orphan-schools. Mohammed Abdou commented on the home saying "... I learned how to live and depend on myself." After his graduation from sixth-grade, he started taking many menial jobs: selling candy and mixed-nuts in the market, joining once as a temployer the general post-office working there as a collector, singing at weddings, and so on until he joined a vocational institute to make a living for himself and his family, moving with them to a new house with whatever little money he'd been given as a graduation prize by the time he'd finished.
In 1989, his mother died and Mohammed stopped singing altogether. It was one of the saddest moments in his entire life as he put it in more than one interview. She was the real love of his life and the one for whom Abdou sang and wanted to be a star after all the hard years that she had to go through when he was at the orphan school. Mohammed Abdou was so saddened by her death that he decided not to issue any more albums from 1989 until 1997.
After eight years, in 1997, he sang in a National Day celebration for Saudi audiences who were amazed at how his voice became more mature. His voice was marvelous and more tact. But, the arrangements were full of lush (strings, endless violin strings...), and the ever-hateful keyboard became the first and most audible musical 'non'-instrument in the orchestra that grew so much from a dozen or so players to 80-plus players. That year, he went to London to sing at three concerts with Warda Al-Jazairia and issued five albums the following three months to feed the demand for his voice in Arabia.
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