Fayrouz, who French President Emmanuel Macron begins his visit to Beirut with a meeting with her on Monday, is the ambassador of Lebanese art to the world with whom Lebanese from all sects and political affiliations meet about her voice and songs.

Although Fayrouz has been completely out of the limelight for years and stopped reviving concerts, her exceptional voice, as recognized by international experts, still accompanies millions of people around the world, as she sang for love, homeland, freedom and values.

The fame of Fairouz - the slim-belly woman - went beyond the borders of the small country, attracting fans from all over the world.

It is considered one of the last adult generation in the golden age of Arab music in the twentieth century.

In Lebanon, Fayrouz - whose real name is Nihad Haddad - refused to be dragged into political or religious rivalries, especially during the years of the civil war (1975-1990), and her songs dominated the rival radio stations on both sides of the battle lines.

In an interview with the "New York Times" in May 1999, "If you look at my face when I sing, you will see as if I am not there," said Fayrouz after a concert in Las Vegas, in response to a question about her excessive seriousness on stage.

"I see art as prayer. I am not in a church, but I feel as if I am in it, and in this atmosphere I cannot laugh," she added.

She was almost constantly on stage almost rigidly, while one movement or a shy smile was enough to ignite the enthusiasm of her audience.

Fayrouz was born in the village of Debbieh in the mountainous Chouf region on November 21, 1934, to a father who works in a printing press and a mother who took care of the family of four children.

Later, the family moved to the Zoukak El Blat neighborhood in Beirut.

At the end of the forties, the composer Mohamed Felfel, who was looking for beautiful sounds to join the Lebanese Radio choir, discovered Fayrouz's talent.

She enrolled her in the Higher Conservatory of Music (Conservatoire) to learn the origins of music and singing.

The radio's music director at the time, Halim Al-Roumi, was impressed with the beauty of her voice and suggested her artistic name, Fairouz.

funny

Behind the scenes of the radio, Fayrouz got to know Assi and Mansour Rahbani, the composers who later became known, especially with her, to a wide fame, and their art was fundamentally linked to Lebanon, thus becoming an integral part of his heritage.

Fairouz collaborated with the Rahbani brothers from the early 1950s, and this resulted in a wide range of musical, theatrical and cinematic works that combined oriental melodies, Lebanese folklore and western tunes.

And a large number of them maintain their freshness over time.

Fayrouz sang to great poets, from Al-Akhtal Al-Saghir to Said Akl, who called her "Lebanon's Ambassador to the Stars", passing by Gibran Khalil Gibran and Elias Abu Shabaka, as Abdel Wahab, Philemon Wehbe and Zaki Nassif composed for her.

She and the Rahbani brothers formed a milestone in the famous Baalbek festivals and was dubbed "the seventh pillar of Baalbek".

In the mid-fifties, Fayrouz married Assi Rahbani and they had four children, Ziad, and Layal, who died in 1987, a year after the death of her father, Hali and Rima.

Close to her say that she went through many tragedies on a personal level, from the death of her daughter to the disability of her son Hali, but she kept her lightness in her private and family gatherings.

"In fact, she is far from the cold image that she reflects on the stage. She is very funny whenever she wants," says journalist Duha Shams, who worked with her for a long time.

Despite Fayrouz's wide fame and always keenness to protect her family privacy, this did not prevent the media from reporting family news, including her disagreement with her husband Assi at a certain stage before his illness, then her disagreement with Mansour Al-Rahbani's family about artistic property rights, and disagreements about her artistic orientation between She has Ziad and Rima.

Fayrouz had collaborated with Ziad since the eighties. In 1991, she sang to him "How are you?"

Within a disc that stirred up controversy between those who love Ziad Rahbani and the renewal of Fairuz’s career and those who reject that, and the publication achieved great success.

Take me back to my country

For decades, Fayrouz's songs have been a bridge between the Lebanese.

During the civil war, she refused to sing in Lebanon to avoid being considered a region without the other, while her country is an arena for conflict between sectarian forces supported by external forces.

However, she held concerts abroad, stirring nostalgia and emotion in the hearts of the Lebanese fleeing to the capitals of the world with songs such as "I Love You Lebanon", "Return Me to My Country" and "To Beirut" that have been accompanying since the fourth of August, the date of the terrible explosion in the capital. Video about the disaster broadcast by local television stations.

Fayrouz sang the most beautiful of what was said about Jerusalem, so it was "Zahrat Al-Madaen" and "We shall return one day."

Two Arab MPs transmitted to her, Moftah al-Madina, in 1968. She also sang for Damascus, Mecca and the like, and for the homelands, revolutions and peoples.

The late King Hussein of Jordan awarded her three decorations, and radio stations in Syria, Jordan and other Arab countries broadcast their songs extensively to this day.

Despite her extreme reservations, Fairouz sparked controversy in 2008 when she sang in Damascus three years after the withdrawal of the Syrian forces from Lebanon, under pressure from the street, who pointed the finger at the time at Syria for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.