FILFILAH: Nawal Al Zoghbi

BIO: Nawal Al Zoghbi was born June 29, 1972 in Lebanon. Nawal began singing at an early age, despite familial opposition to the lifestyle of a musician (her family changed their minds when they realized she was serious in her ambitions). She is influenced by the work of pioneering Arabic pop singers such as Egypt's Umm Kulthum and the very famous Arab singer Samira Said. Inspired by her appearance on Studio El Fan in 1988 (singing competition), Nawal became a professional singer in 1991. After a visit to her birth city of Beirut she released her debut album "Wehyati Andak" in 1992.With that success she released a string of hit albums such as "Ayza El Radd" and "Balaee Fi Zamany". The video "Wala Behimini" from the album "Balaee Fi Zamany" secured her stardom with her image being broadcast on several billboards and magazines such as the Arabic version of "ELLE".In 1996 Nawal released one of her most successful albums to date named "Habeit Ya Leil". The album spawned 3 hit singles with "Habeit Ya Leil", "Noss El Alb", and "Ghareeb El Ray". This was her final album with her label Music Box International, with which she terminated her contract. In 1998 Nawal Al-Zoghbi released her album and single titled Mandam aleik. The song was apparently originally sung by Syrian singer Houwaida. It was a huge success for Houwaida, but a short while later Al-Zoghbi released the album with her version of the song. When asked about the allegations of taking Houwaida's debut song, Al-Zoghbi claimed she had the song for a while and recorded it prior to Houwaida's release. On television interviews, she showed papers which showed lyrics of the song claiming that these are the originals and that Houwaida took it from her.
"Mandam Aleik" is available on both singers' albums and both got their share of popularity after the conflict. It became one of Nawal's most popular hits, and is often requested by fans at her concerts. Nawal's next album Maloum was released in 1999 and did not receive the same level of success as her previous albums. Nawal herself declared regrets for rushing the release so soon after Mandam Aleik. Nawal's next two releases El Layali 2000 and Tool Omri 2001 were both released within a year of each other, and provided Nawal with continued success, reclaiming her spot atop the pantheom of Arabic pop.After a two year break, Nawal's next album Eineik Kaddabeen was released in the summer of 2004 at a lavish album launch party in Cairo Inn. This album was accompanied by two singles: 'Eineik Kaddabeen' and 'Bi'einek'. Immediately after promoting that album, Nawal then began work on her most recent album Yama Alou. She released the first single 'Rohi Ya Rohi' in August 2005. Her first live performance of 'Rohi Ya Rohi' was at a concert she held at the Hammersmith Apollo, in London. The next single released from Yama Alou was 'Shou Akhbarak' in February 2006. As part of the promotion for her 11th album Yama Alou, her production company, Alam el Phan, began previewing short clips from some of the upcoming albums songs on a telephone line that listeners could call. Shortly after, an advertisement campaign was launched. It began with a television advert showing the camera moving from a womans boots upwards, but stopping before her face was revealed, the screen went dark and the word 'soon' appeared on the screen. A week or so later, the next advertisement followed a similar format to the previous one, however, in this new advert, the face of the woman was revealed and the figure was Nawal herself. After this, the next advert showed clips of Nawal from the albums promotional photo shoot while playing small clips of the songs 'Yama Alou', 'Aghla el Habbayib', 'El Assi', 'Habaytak' and 'Shou Akhbarak'.The television campaign was accompanied by large billboards and posters of Nawal in Egypt and Lebanon. The music video for Yama Alou, began to air at the beginning of July 2006, roughly a week before the album release date. The music video was aired on the Mazzika and Zoom music channels across the Middle East and the song was played exclusively on the Sawt el Ghad radio station in Lebanon as well as the Nagoum FM in Egypt.Yama Alou was intended to be released throughout the middle east on the 17th of July 2006, however, due to the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, its release was postponed. It was then released on 26 July 2006 in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In the following weeks, the album was made available in other countries around the middle east and was finally released in Lebanon on the 14 September 2006, once the war was over. On the 23rd of March 2007, it was announced that Nawal al Zoghbi will be producing her next album with the production company Rotana. Nawal officially joined Rotana at a press conference at the Movenpick in Beirut on the 28th March 2007. At a press conference held by LG global at the hotel Dosit in Dubai on the 25th April 2007, it was announced that Nawal Al Zoghbi will be the face to advertise LG cellular phones which the company will put out in 2007-2008 in the Middle East. The conference was attended by a large crowd from various media, which exceeded a variety of over 100 means of information between written, visual and audible. On Sunday, May 20th, 2007, Nawal Al Zoughbi was a guest on the hit show Taratata (Dubai TV Channel) along with four other singers. Nawal sang duets with the other four singers who will be making appearances on the show. Ibrahim Al-Hakami(Superstar 4) and Massari(Canadian/Lebanese singer) are among the four guests that appeared and sang with Nawal on Sunday. On Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 Nawal released the music video of her song, "Aghla El Habayib" from her album "Yama Alou" which was a continuation to the song "Shou Akhbarak" from the same album. Nawal is the oldest of her three brothers and one sister. She is married to Elie Deeb and has three children: a daughter Tia (b. 1999, and twin sons Georgy and Joey (b. 2004). However she prefers to keep her personal life private. She released a song titled Tia which was dedicated to her daughter. She also owns a production company named after her daughter, Tia Productions. Nawal has been known for her distinctive performances, and has always taken her image into careful consideration. She constantly has changed her image much like Madonna and Kylie Minogue. Nawal has always been known to take special care with her music. She has final say over her lyrics and songs as well as promotion. She has stated controlling her career is one of her keys to success.