Warda - Biography
Warda Al-Jazairia (Warda the Algerian Rose) is one of the most popular singers in the Arab world. As a lyricist, composer, and singer, her songs became classics in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Warda began singing professionally at the age of 11 in 1951, but she halted her career between the years of 1963 and 1972 to raise a family. She then returned to the stage recaptured her place in the pantheon of great Arab singers. Making up for lost time, the industrious performer has released an average of nearly five albums a year since 1973. Although, Warda has been in poor health since the late 1990s, she has told her fans that she has no intention of retiring.
Warda Ftouki was born in Paris in 1940, the daughter of an Algerian immigrant and his Lebanese wife. Warda’s mother taught her patriotic and popular Lebanese songs by Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Farid El Atrash. Her father, Mohammed, ran a nightclub in the Latin Quarter called TAM TAM (Tunsia, Algeria, Morocco). The family lived above the club, and Warda would sneak out of her room and hide backstage to hear the musicians rehearse and perform. Ahmad Tejani, an A&R man for Pathè Marconi-EMI (known today as EMI France), heard Warda singing and asked her father if the 11-year-old could sing on his children’s radio program on RTF. She was an immediate hit and famous Arab composers like Zaki Khrayef, Redha Elkala, and Saber Essafh began writing children’s songs for her. By the time she was 12, she was making records that were popular all over the Arab world. When Mohammed Abdel Wahab heard her at TAM TAM, he took her under his wing and composed for her, taught her to read and write Arabic, and helped her sing without an Algerian accent.
In 1958, the War for Algerian Independence had heated up and anti-Arab feeling in France forced the family to flee to Beirut. There Warda made recordings of militant songs like “Djamila” and “Ana mil djazair ana arabia” (“I am from Algeria, I am an Arab”). In 1960, she moved to Egypt to work with composer Riad al Sombati who had set Algerian poet Salah Elkharfi’s poems “Essaidune” and “Nidau adhamir” to music. In 1963, she visited Algeria to celebrate its independence from France and married an officer from the National Liberation Army. He asked her to give up singing, which she did.
In 1972, Houari Boumédienne, the President of Algeria, asked her to sing in the celebration of Algeria’s 10th Anniversary of Independence. She agreed, and her marriage ended as a result. The El-Massia orchestra of Egypt backed her when she sang “Ad'uka ya amali,” a poem from the Algerian poet Salah Kharfi with music by Baligh Hamdi. She moved back to Egypt, resumed her career, and married Hamdi. She became an international star noted for her powerful voice, perfect intonation, an emotional delivery that mixed power and vulnerability, and her ability to improvise. Musically, she presented folk songs from all over the Arab continuum and blended elements of Flamenco with classical Moroccan and Tunisian music. Her albums include Batwanness Beek (1986 EMI Arabia), Tabaan Ahbab (1988 EMI Arabia), and the live Aayza Moogueza/Dari ya Dar (1989 Sonod France).
Since her comeback, Warda has released between four and five albums a year. In the ‘90s, she began working with composer Salah el Sharnobi, lyricist Omar Bateesha, arranger Tareq Aakef, and producer Mohsen Gaber of Alam El Fan Records. Her albums with el Sharnobi and Bateesha include 1997’s Warda (EMI Hemisphere) and Mawasem (1997 EMI Arabia), 1998’s Mata’awednash (EMI Arabia), and 2001’s Ana Leya Meen Gherak (EMI Arabia).
In the late ‘90s, Warda became more selective about her performance dates and the songs she records. In 2002, she had a liver transplant and her doctors asked her to retire, but she went back to the studio in 2004 for Harramt Ahebbak (EMI Arabia) and in 2006 for An el Awan (EMI Arabia). Warda assured her fans that she would continue to make records and personnel appearances as long as she was able. Good introductory discs include 1999’s Fi Youm Wi Leilah (EMI Arabia), written by the great composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab; 2000’s Chansons d'Amour (EMI Arabia), which features songs from her earlier years; and 2004’s Nagham el Hawa: Best of Warda (EMI Arabia). On May 17, 2012 she died from cardiac arrest.