Collage created by Jaimee Lee Haddad.
On the occasion of the icon's 91st birthday, we invite you to revisit Fairuz's lifelong legacy through this special series published in 2024.Most people come into this world only once. But a select few manage to be born twice, their second arrival overshadowing the first. Fairouz is one of them. Her gradual iconization has gently subsumed Nouhad Wadih Haddad, her original name. She was born in November 1934, when the heart of Greater Lebanon still pulsed under the French Mandate.Nouhad’s modest childhood reflects the sweeping urban and demographic transformations of the first half of the 20th century. She was born to a Syriac typographer from Mardin — a town straddling the Turkish-Syrian border — who worked at the printing press of the newspaper Le Jour (L’Orient-Le Jour today), and a stay-at-home Maronite mother from al-Debbieh...
On the occasion of the icon's 91st birthday, we invite you to revisit Fairuz's lifelong legacy through this special series published in 2024.Most people come into this world only once. But a select few manage to be born twice, their second arrival overshadowing the first. Fairouz is one of them. Her gradual iconization has gently subsumed Nouhad Wadih Haddad, her original name. She was born in November 1934, when the heart of Greater Lebanon still pulsed under the French Mandate.Nouhad’s modest childhood reflects the sweeping urban and demographic transformations of the first half of the 20th century. She was born to a Syriac typographer from Mardin — a town straddling the Turkish-Syrian border — who worked at the printing press of the newspaper Le Jour (L’Orient-Le Jour today), and a stay-at-home Maronite mother from...
