REPORT: Lebanon bids farewell to legendary singer Wadih Safi

Wadih Safi passed away on Friday October 11th at the age of 92.

Safi, whose real name was Wadih Francis, was born in 1921 in the Chouf village of Niha. He lived in near poverty in the village until his family moved to Beirut when he was nine.

The son of a policeman and the second of eight siblings, Safi started his artistic journey at the age of 17 when he participated in a singing contest held by a Lebanese radio station where he placed first out of 40 contestants and began working at the station.

Following the competition, he began composing and performing songs that illustrated his rural upbringing and love for traditional melodies, and created a new style of modernized folk music.

Safi helped spread colloquial Lebanese Arabic outside his country, becoming known to many Arabs as "the man with the golden voice."

During a career that spanned over seven decades he worked with a string of legendary Arab composers and singers such as Egypt's late Mohammed Abdul-Wahhab, the late Syrian-Egyptian Farid al-Atrash and Lebanon's Fayrouz.


To watch the full LBCI report, please click on the video above.