Acting

Warda Al-Jazairia

Warda Ftouki, better known as Warda (Arabic: وردة), or Warda Al-Jazairia (Arabic: وردة الجزائرية, "Warda the Algerian"), was an Algerian singer. Born on July 22, 1939 in Paris to an Algerian father and a Lebanese mother, she died on May 17, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. Warda was born in Paris to an Algerian father, Mohammed Ftouki, originally from Souk Ahras, and a Lebanese mother. She began singing during the 1950s in her father's establishment, Tam-Tam, in the Latin Quarter in Paris. At 11, she sang in host Ahmed Hachlaf's show broadcast on Paris Inter. She recorded her first album with Pathé-Marconi. In 1956, weapons intended for the FLN were discovered by the police in his father's cabaret. The establishment is closed and the family deported to Lebanon. In 1959 she met the composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab, who taught her classical singing and adapted Bi-Omri Kullo Habbitak for her. Gamal Abdel Nasser asked him to perform Al Watan Al Akbar, written for a pan-Arab opera. Director Helmi Rafla signed her to a contract, and she pursued a musical and film career in Egypt. After Algeria's independence, she went there for the first time and married an officer. Warda paused her career for around ten years to raise their daughter Widad and their son Riyad. In 1972, at the request of President Houari Boumédiène, she took part in the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the country's independence by performing in Algiers with an Egyptian orchestra. After her divorce, she resumed her career and returned to Egypt, where she married the composer Baligh Hamdi. She works with the great Arab composers, Hilmi Bakr, Riadh Sombati, Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Mohammed Al-Mougui and Sayed Mekawi. In 1979, Warda performed on the Olympia stage. In 1990, Warda divorced her second husband, and made a comeback by performing songs by composer Salah Charnoubi, Haramt Ahibek, Betwenes Bik and Ya Khsara.