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Thursday, May 17, 2012 10:16 PM UTC

Algerian singer Warda dies in Cairo at 72

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Topics: From the Wires,

CAIRO (AP) — The Algerian singer Warda, whose sultry voice and range helped make her one of the giants of Arab song, has died. She was 72.

Egyptian state TV said Warda died Thursday at her home in Cairo. The official MENA news agency said she was 72, and that her body will be flown to Algeria on Friday for burial.

Along with Lebanon’s Fayrouz and Egypt’s late Umm Kalthoum, Warda was one of the legendary singers of the Arab world, with a voice that has been described as both sweet and powerful.

She lived in Egypt on and off for more than 40 years, and it was in Egypt that she earned both her cinematic and singing breakthroughs that won her fame across the Middle East. She had at least five lead roles in Egyptian films, and some 300 songs to her name.

Warda Aldjazairia, or the Algerian Rose, was born in France in 1939 to an Algerian father and Lebanese mother. She began singing as a little girl, gaining a following among Arab children in France through her songs broadcast on local radio.

She traveled to Algeria for the first time in 1962 after the country gained independence from it French colonial rulers. She married an Algerian, and quit singing for ten years.

After moving to Cairo, at the time the heart of the Arab cultural and artistic scene, she had her big break in the late 1970s with the hit “My Times Are Sweeter With You.”

She frequently worked with Egypt’s and the broader Arab world’s best-known composers, and eventually married one — Baligh Hamdy. They formed a formidable team, even after their divorce, making some of the most memorable Arab love songs, including “Stay Here, Stay” and “Listen To Me.”

Late Egyptian singer and composer Mohammed Abdel-Wahab said Warda had “a broad voice with special abilities that other singers lack.”

“I feel safe when she sings my tunes,” he said.

Warda sang in all Arab dialects, and although better known for her love songs, she also sang nationalistic songs for Algeria and the larger Arab world.

She was first introduced to a wider audience in Egypt when she took part in a pan-Arab song in 1960 called “The Greater Nation” written under Egypt’s charismatic president, Gamal Abdel-Nasser. In the song, she sang the part about Algeria, earning her the moniker Aldjazairia, or The Algerian.

Warda had a liver transplant ten years ago, which forced her to give up performing for a number of years.

Her son told an Arab newspaper Sunday that his mother was planning to film a new song in Algeria soon.

Her last album was released in 2011, titled: “The Years I lost.”

More Sarah El Deeb.

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