Kadhem As-Saher Full Biography
Last Updated on Monday, 23 February 2009 00:50
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By Muhammad Zahra
Kadhem, the Caesar of Arab Singing:
"I like to be different in my work. I like to look for the strange and hard things."
Perhaps this is the key quote for identifying Kadhem As-Saher or the Caesar of Arab Singing as called by Great Nizar Qabbani, the most famous romantic poet in modern Arab history. Kadhem is the top-selling singer in the Arab world today, both in terms of recordings and concert ticket sales. His music is rich in the melodies, rhythms, and complex sonic textures of Arabic classical music, but at the same time, his compositions are strikingly contemporary, and his superb, sensitive and amazingly powerful voice coated with elegant classical looks have helped to make him an artistic icon throughout the Arab World and beyond. "I feel happy when turning between the different kinds of music to satisfy my fans and myself."
Kadhem's success playing classical, romantic songs in an era of electronic pop music is that much more remarkable in light of the fact that he comes from Iraq. Kadhem has built his phenomenal career in the face of two wars, an international embargo, and a condition of unprecedented isolation in his homeland. "I am a man of love," says Kadhem, "a man of romance. I have memories of politics, but almost all of my songs are about love, in the manner of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet."
Early Life & Artistic Inclination:
Kadhem Jabbar Ibrahim As-Samerra'i, always known by his artistic name "Kadhem As-Saher" (In Arabic: كاظم الساهر) was born on September 12, 1957 in a village called Nainawa in Al-Mousil "an ancient city in the north of Iraq. He was born as the 7th child to a modest family, which has 8 boys and 2 girls. His father worked in the local palace, and although his government wage did not make him a rich man, he sired the 10 children.
At his childhood his creativity began by making his own toys out of clay and wire, and very soon he began his first tries in writing poetry.
* Kadhem took a keen interest in classical music as a boy. He sat by the radio and learned to sing works by masters like Muhammad Abdul- Wahhab. At age ten, he sold his bicycle to buy his first instrument, a guitar, but after a year of study on guitar, he switched to the oud, the principal composers' instrument in the Arab world and from that moment his finger have never ceased from pedaling on melodies strings. Kadhem wrote his first song at twelve, a romantic piece in the classical style, composed for a girl he liked. His wonderful voice was noticed at the first time while his reciting the Holy Qur'an and later by repeating songs to a great musicians at that time.
In 1980, at the age of 19 Kadhem started teaching music at the women's unity association as well as a fraternity club & in the same year he married his cousin.
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Big thank you to Muhammad Zahra (AKA Laureate_Kazem)
