Perhaps it has become difficult for us to find a space of beauty in which we can recover something from a lot that we have lost over the days, so we try from time to time as we get close to fatigue to steal a little time in search of simplicity amid all the complexities and difficulties of the modern world, then we find no recourse to open the gate of nostalgia except Through songs we still sing to convince ourselves that we might win the great love on this little planet, or at least that we never lose the capacity for joy if we ever find our treasure buried on a distant island.

Singer Sami Clark - who passed away recently - evokes this kind of nostalgia and longing for the past, and this nostalgia did not arise after the death of our first partner in it, and the high percentage of views and participations of the “Grendizer” and “Treasure Island” badges, or any party or television interview, testify to this. Clark sang it.

This partnership was not limited to children's programs, but exceeded it to dozens of songs that did not stop broadcasting on radio or television stations despite the passage of decades since their release. Many want to dance until the morning, or have a girlfriend who wants to remind her of their first meetings.

And because we are used to every beautiful story having an end, Sami Clark, the musician and singer, who allowed himself to share our journey and to penetrate our memory and perch in it, until it became easy for him to unite us in one large choir, recited dozens of songs he wrote despite our different ages and affiliations.

A unique talent for success

Sami Clark was born in the Lebanese village of Dhour El Choueir on May 19, 1948. His original name was Sami Hobeika, but he later chose to call himself Sami Clark because of its pronunciation in other languages.

His musical talent emerged after he joined the military band after joining the compulsory service when he was 18 years old, benefiting from the encouragement of his mother, who was good at playing the piano, and then his love for art soon pushed him to oppose his father's desire to study law.

Clark began composing melodies and lyrics since he was a student, then with a number of his friends founded a musical group called "Robbins", before the late Elias Rahbani discovered him on the stage of the "Jesus University" in Beirut, and asked him to go with him to Greece to participate in a festival International, and indeed, in 1970 Rahbani wrote a song in French for him “Jamais” that tells the story of a young Lebanese man traveling with his guitar, which achieved remarkable success at the time.

Clark's Precious Treasure

Since then, Sami Clark has received many local and international awards in honor of his long career, which included 9 amateur television programs and 12 radio programs. He also participated in 3 films, "The Last Passage", "Beauty and Giants", and "The Women's Game". In addition to more than 800 songs and dozens of national anthems, according to an interview with him published in Al-Diyar newspaper in 2019.

All this made him one of the most prominent Lebanese artists, especially that he sang in several foreign languages, such as French, English, Russian, Italian, German and Greek, and succeeded in mixing Arabic with other languages ​​in a smooth and unpretentious manner, which contributed to bringing him closer to the audience.

He also sang badges for some cartoon series in the eighties of the last century, such as "Grendizer" and "Treasure Island", in addition to some advertisements.

early departure

Sami Clark was known for his honesty and loyalty towards his art and his family and friends alike, and in the last years of his life he turned towards charitable and humanitarian works, and he kept giving concerts in a number of Arab countries, Canada and the United States, donating its proceeds to humanitarian aid and charities.

Clark has also worked since the outbreak of the Corona epidemic on organizing his artistic archive and distributing some of the songs of the late Zaki Nassif that deal with the issue of alienation as a result of the large wave of immigration that occurred as a result of the economic collapse and the explosion of the port of Beirut, in addition to preparing some songs written for him by Elias Rahbani that were not issued before, as well as About a book entitled "A Rich Story" in which he tells his biography and stories with each song of his, but all these projects were not completed, as he passed away last Sunday after suffering a heart attack, leaving a great legacy of songs that will accompany us for many years.