Ziad Rahbani (, born 1956) is a Lebanese

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, and political commentator. He is the son of Fairouz, one of

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 ...

and the Arab world's most famous singers, and Assi Rahbani, one of the founders of modern Arabic music. Many of his musicals satirize Lebanese politics both during and after the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

, and are often critical of the traditional political establishment.

Personal life

Ziad Rahbani is the son of the Lebanese composer Assi Rahbani and Nouhad Haddad, the Lebanese female singer known as Fairuz. Rahbani was married to Dalal Karam, with whom he has a boy named "Assi" but he was later found out not to be his biological son. Their relationship later ended in divorce, prompting Karam to write a series of articles for the gossip magazine ''Ashabaka'' about their marriage. Rahbani composed a number of songs about their relationship, including "Marba el Dalal" and "Bisaraha". Rahbani has a long-standing relationship with Lebanese leftist movements, and is a self-declared

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

, being a lifelong affiliate with the Lebanese Communist Party. Furthermore, in an interview with the journalist Ghassan Bin-Jiddu, Rahbani stated that the bloodbath massacres in the Palestinian camp Tall a-Za’tar by extreme-rightist Christian militias in 1976 was the main reason that drove him to leave to West Beirut. Notwithstanding, he also expressed his support to the Lebanese resistance and its project in the face of "the Israeli occupation and its Zionist Apartheid regime". Coming from a Christian family, his politics and viewpoints were very radical to his right-wing teenage surroundings. Rahbani was popularly understood to be

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, which is very uncommon in Lebanon.

Career

Rahbani's first known artistic work was "Sadiqi Allah" (My Friend God), a collection of writings between the years 1967 and 1968 when he was in his teens. In 1973, at age 17, Rahbani composed his first music for Fairuz, his mother. Assi Rahbani, his father, was hospitalized and his mother Fairuz was to play the leading role in ''Al Mahatta'' by the Rahbani brothers. Mansour Rahbani, his uncle, who had written the lyrics of a song about Assi Rahbani's forced absence, gave Ziad Rahbani the task of composing its music. The song "Saalouni El Nass" (People Asked Me) gained Rahbani recognition in the music world. Rahbani appeared for the first time on stage in ''Al Mahatta'' where he played the role of the detective. He also appeared later on in the Rahbani Brothers' ''Mays el Rim'' in the role of one of the policemen. Rahbani's first step into theatre was with the Bkennaya Theater in ''Sahriyyeh''. He followed that with highly politicized string of plays. "In
The Harvest of Thorns: Political Comedy Theater in Syria and Lebanon
' Aksam Al-Youssef wrote, "Under these circumstances, as a young adult, Ziad imposed himself on the artistic scene as a playwright, director, composer, pianist, and actor. In a short time, his original theatre would become the center of attention for young people who found in it the voice of a lost generation caught in the throws of war and violence. As an actor, besides appearing in his own plays, Rahbani starred in Randa Chahal Sabbagh's 2003 film The Kite.

Collaborations

Before, during and after the war, Rahbani released and co-released several albums like: ''Bi hal shakel'', ''Abou Ali'', ''Halleluja'', ''Shareet Ghayr Houdoudi'', ''Houdou Nesbi'', ''Ana Mouch Kafer'', ''Hakaya al Atfal'', ''Bema Enno'', ''Monodose'' (with singer Salma Mosfi) and ''Maaloumat Mush Akidi'' (with singer Latifa).

Discography

Studio releases

Albums for Fairuz

Stage and radio

Notes

References

External links

*
A compilation of press articles and interviews with Ziad Rahbani, in arabic

Criticism on Ziad Rahbani, Fairouz, and Assi Rahbani's Art

FairuzFan - contains information of Ziad's works with Fairuz his mother
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rahbani, Ziad 1956 births Living people Lebanese actors Lebanese left-wing activists 20th-century Lebanese male singers Lebanese songwriters Lebanese composers Lebanese jazz musicians Male jazz musicians 21st-century Lebanese male singers