Sabah
Jeanette Georges Feghali (10 November 1927 – 26 November 2014), known professionally as Sabah, was a Lebanese singer and actress. Her professional career started in Egypt and later extended to Lebanon and the wider Arab world. She amassed a vast line of work over six decades, out-scaling most past and present contemporaries. Sabah is often regarded as one of the greatest Arab singers of the 20th century.
Born to rural Lebanese parents in a village 15 kilometres from Beirut, Sabah grew up with a love for performing arts. In 1945, she was noticed for an acting talent at her school in Lebanon and later invited to Egypt by actress and film director Assia Dagher. There, she was cast in her first film as the original character Sabah, whose name was chosen through a public poll and later adopted by Sabah as a stage name.
Most of Sabah's career spanned the mid-1940s to the early 2000s. In 1958, she acted in her first film with Abdel Halim Hafez, which helped her enter the mainstream Arab acting scene. She is said to have produced about 3,000 to 5,000 songs, acted in nearly 100 films, and nearly 20 stage plays.
Sabah remains a celebrated figure in Arabic music. Even though she was scrutinised for her bold outfits, use of cosmetic surgery, and outspoken personality, she has become praised as a major artistic figure within the Arab socialist movement.
Over the years of her professional life, she had come to be known by several other nicknames, the most notable of which being Al-Shahroura (alternatively Shahrourat al-Wadi), Shams al-Shomous, Al-Sabbouha, and Al-Ustura, as well as "The Notorious Diva" (in the 2009 duet of Yana Yana with Rola Saad).
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