Todays Doodle praises the 110th birthday celebration of Syrian-conceived Egyptian arranger, singer, instrumentalist, actor, and film producer Farid al-Atrash, broadly viewed as one of the Arab world’s extraordinary entertainers of his time.
A virtuosic player of the stringed Middle Eastern instrument called the oud, al-Atrash everlastingly left his blemish on music and film in Egypt and past, delivering more than 220 unique melodies and featuring in 31 melodic movies over his productive vocation.
Farid al-Atrash was conceived on this day in 1910 into the unmistakable al-Atrash family in Jabal Druze in the Syrian territory of Suwayda. As a kid, al-Atrash emigrated with his mom and kin to Egypt, getting away from the French occupation.
Afterward, they were naturalized by the Egyptian government as residents. There, he proceeded to seek after melodic instruction—motivated by his mom who was an expert artist and performer herself.
Showing an uncommon melodic ability, by the mid ’30s he was singing routinely on Egyptian radio.
Al-Atrash before long started to deliver his own music and rose to another degree of notoriety with his big-screen debut–close by his sister (Asmahan)– in the 1941 film “Intisar al-Shabab” (“The Triumph of Youth”).
He proceeded to lead a hugely effective movie vocation during Egypt’s brilliant time of film over the next many years.
In the interim, he created numerous tunes thought about works of art of current Arab music and through his remarkable instrumental ability gained the epithet “King of the Oud.”
