Nagat Al Saghira

Asaalek Al Raheel (I Ask You to Leave)

• Asaalek Al Raheel (I Ask You to Leave)

• Asaalek Al Raheel (I Ask You to Leave) Suite

Label

Location Issued

Artist Origin

Credits

Lyrics: Nizar Qabbani 
Music: Mohammed Abdel Wahab

More Info

Songs by Egyptian singer and actress Nagat Hosni Elbaba, known as Nagat Al Saghira (born1938). Nagat Al Saghira is considered one of the most famous icons of Arabic music from the golden age of the 1950s and 1960s. Nagat El-Sagheera was born in Cairo to a Damascene family of Kurdish origin. Her father was the Damascene calligrapher Mohamed Kamal Hussaini El Baba. Her mother was Egyptian, and her half-non-biological sister is the artist Suad Hussaini. During the first decade of her singing career, Nagat would imitate other singers, especially Oum Kalthoum, before abandoning this after singing the first song of her own at the age of 16 in 1955. The poet Mamoun El Shennawi presented her with the song Awsifuli Al Houb composed by Mahmoud El Sherif. This song was her true artistic beginning. Nagat collaborated with a number of Arabic music composers and lyricists from the twentieth century – most notably Kamal El Taweel, who composed E'sh Ma'aya and Mohammed Abdel Wahab, who believed that his works and melodies were safer with Nagat than other singers. He described her as 'the owner of the loud silence' and composed many of her best-known songs. The most famous of these was the song La Takzubi written by Kamal El Shennawi. Nagat also sang the poems of Nizar Qabbani, one of the most famous contemporary poets in the Arab world, which were composed by Abdel Wahab. She also starred in 13 films over 30 years and is currently the last surviving singer to have sung the melodies of Sheikh Zakaria Ahmad.