Maeda Nazhat or Maeda Jasim Mohammed Al-Azzawi (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: مائدة نزهت; 1937 – c.19 September 2018 ) was an Iraqi singer. She came to fame in the 1950s and was one of the first performers to appear on Iraqi TV. She quit singing in the 1980s.

Early life

Maeda was born in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, where she grew up and attended school. From an early age, she showed talent at school events, performing songs by famous Arab singers like

Umm Kulthum Umm Kulthum (; 31 December 1898 – 3 February 1975) was an Egyptians, Egyptian singer and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s. She was given the honorific title (). Immensely popular throughout the Middle East and beyond, Umm Kul ...

Career

In the early 1950s, she won a competition at the Iraqi broadcasting agency looking for new Iraqi talents, and she became a regular singer in Iraqi radio. She became one of the first to sing on TV in 1956, and she is considered the first to sing in support of the July 14 revolution in 1958, with her two songs "Good morning, revolution morning" and "I am Iraq". Maeda was also one of few women to sing the

Iraqi maqam Iraqi Maqam () is a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq. The roots of modern Iraqi maqam can be traced as far back as the Abbasid Caliphate (8th–13th centuries AD), when that large empire was controlled from Baghdad. The ensemble of ins ...

with the Iraqi Heritage Music Orchestra, which was founded in 1974. Nazhat and her husband, musician Wadih Khonda (also known as Samir Al-Baghdadi), were famous internationally. They traveled to many countries including

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

, and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, where Nazhat performed on stage or recorded songs for local radio.

Later life

In the 1980s both Maeda and her husband retired from the music scene and chose to live in obscurity. It is reported that Maeda even requested that her songs no longer play on the radio. In 2003, after the US invasion of Iraq, Maeda left Iraq and moved to

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

. She died on 19 September 2018 (or 2019) at the age of 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nazhat, Maeda 1937 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Iraqi women singers 20th-century Iraqi singers Musicians from Baghdad