BEIRUT: Iconic Lebanese singer and actress Sabah (pictured) died yesterday aged 87, after a seven-decade career and a colourful love life that kept her in the headlines until the end.
A glamorous platinum blonde and one of the Arab world’s best-known divas, Sabah died in the hotel where she lived just outside Beirut, her manager Joseph Gharib said. Her death was major news in Lebanon, where Sabah is beloved as both a singer and a movie star who was never afraid to challenge social convention.
Born Jeanette Gergi Feghali on November 10, 1927, she later took the screen name Sabah (Morning in Arabic) but was affectionately known by the diminutive Sabbuha, or the nickname Shahrura (songbird).
She began performing in the 1940s, earning a reputation for her renditions of patriotic songs as well as folkloric ballads, though it was her light-hearted style that endeared her to fans.
She was also an icon of the big screen, launching her career in Egypt, the centre of the Arab film industry, and appearing in more than 90 movies, including her first “The Heart Has One”.
She starred alongside many Egyptian heart throbs, including Rushdi Abaza, one of several men she would marry. Sabah, who also performed on the stage and on television, will be remembered almost as much for a tumultuous love life that at times threatened to overshadow her reputation as a performer.
She is believed to have tied the knot at least nine times, though the precise figure has been disputed, ensuring that her private life was perpetually in the headlines.
Her first marriage, in 1946, was to Najib Shammas, who fathered her son, Sabah. Her daughter Huwaida was born from her union with Egyptian violinist Anwar Mansy. Her other husbands included Egyptian television presenter Ahmad Faraj and Lebanese member of parliament Yusef Hammoud. Her marriage to Abaza lasted just days, but the longest of her unions, clocking in at 17 years, was to Lebanese artist Fadi Lebnan. AFP
