Kadhem As-Saher Full Biography
Last Updated on Monday, 23 February 2009 00:50
Study, Talent Unleashed & Career Breakthrough:
At 21, he was admitted into the prestigious Baghdad Music Academy where he studied for 6 years. At this time people began to know him as Kadhem As-Saher instead of Kadhem As- Samerra'i, his real name and he was known as the "the king of oud" among his colleagues in the academy due to his exceptional talent in playing oud and composing songs on it.
By the time Kadhem entered the Music Academy at 21, the Iran-Iraq war had forced his father to leave the palace and take up work in a furniture factory. The future looked uncertain. "Of course, my family worried," he recalls. "They would have preferred that I become a doctor or a lawyer. I was very good in school, so they thought I could take on a profession. But my mother was in my corner for music. She always encouraged me."
As he studied Arab classical music and Iraqi folklore, Kadhem continued to compose music, but the producers who controlled the all-important outlets of radio and television in Iraq refused to help him. "I would go to music promoters and they would say, 'We'll work with you only if you sing our songs. They would let me compose for other people, but to actually compose and sing? No---which they would not allow."
Other young artists had wealthy backers, but Kadhem could scarcely afford the bus fare to go and visit these promoters, let alone to bribe them. Kadhem got his first break at 26 when a keyboard-playing friend from the academy introduced him to a television director. Without getting permission, they went on location and shot a video for one of Kadhem's songs. When they slipped it into the broadcast, the song made a sensation all over Iraq and around the Gulf.
"The song was called 'Ladghat El Hayya,' (The Snake Bite)" Kadhem recalls. "I wrote it the year that the war finished with Iran, 1987. It was about someone who has been threatened and prevented from proceeding, someone who is afraid." The television producers were naturally impressed with Kadhem's reception by the public, but not with the words of his song. They gave the young artist a choice: change the lyrics and rerecord the song, or else they would ban it. Kadhem refused to change his song. Predictably, banning the song only made it more popular. Requests for collaborations and concert appearances began to come from around the Gulf, and in the brief interlude between Iraq's two recent wars, Kadhem launched his career in earnest. The producers of a nighttime television soap opera gave him his next break when they used his music in the program's title song. The show's popularity blossomed, and Kadhem began recording for record labels in Kuwait and in Iran. In 1988, Kadhem's final year at the Music Academy, he composed a hugely successful pop song called "Abart Al Shat" ("I Crossed the Sea"). Some of the more conservative professors objected and tried to get Kadhem expelled from the school for composing lowly "shaabi" (pop) music. But now Kadhem had defenders, professors who recognized his extraordinary gifts as a composer, and he completed his degree. In December of 1989, Kadhem performed in major concerts in Kuwait and also the United States, filled with Arab audiences.
In the television studio, Kadhem met Aziz El Rassam, the first of many prominent lyricists he would compose with over the years. Rassam wrote lyrics for eighteen of Kadhem's early songs, including "Obart Al Shat." The two proved as effective a team as Lennon and McCartney. In 1990, Kadhem teamed up with the Cairo Symphony to record "La Ya Sadiki" ("No, My Friend"), a fifty-minute opus that established him as a major contemporary composer, although its length and complexity confounding radio programmers. "I did this for myself," says Kadhem. "I would rather write a symphony or a concerto than a five-minute pop song. I wanted to prove that I could do it as well as the masters." And he succeeded. Critics have even credited him with reviving certain maqam (Arabic scales) that had fallen into disuse by modern composers.
As the Iraq-Iran war drew to and end in 1989, Al-Saher's fame slowly extended across the borders to neighboring countries. By 1990, incredible fame seemed inevitable; his popularity continued to grow throughout the Arab world. But two years after his graduation from the institute, the Gulf War erupted and proved to be a major obstacle for Kadhem's burgeoning career as it made it so difficult for him as an Iraqi musician to move freely between countries.
"For two years, I couldn't do anything," he recalls. " I couldn't even travel to the Middle East, only to Jordan, where I lived during that time."
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait put an end to this success. As-Saher could no longer be seen or heard on television or the radio anywhere in the Arab world. "I really can't describe what happened to me back then. The war made many countries forget that Iraqi citizens are also Arabs," he says, the pain evident in his voice. Some even advised him to abandon his dreams, because it was "all over" for him.
As in the Iran-Iraq war, Kadhem had lost friends to the fighting, and this period still holds dark memories for him. Later, he would sing about the pain of war and especially its effects on children in the songs Ah Ya Arab (Oh, Arabs) and "Tathakkar" ("Memory"), sometimes known as "Jaffat Dama'irkum (Your Conscience Has Withered) with lyrics by creative poet Kareem Al Iraqi-- direct political statements condemning the passivity of Arab governments toward the dangerously high death toll amongst Iraqi children -- the mere fact that As-Saher was a famous Iraqi singer at this particular time meant that he was a de facto ambassador to his country.
Kadhem moved to Lebanon in pursuit of his musical ambition. The Lebanese audience warmly embraced his art and granted him the opportunity to assert himself as an Iraqi artist. After this support, Kadhem was able to bring Iraqi music to the spotlight again after it had been sanctioned out of mention.
Distinctive Popularity Established:
All that changed, though. His songs broke down the barriers and his Gulf audience in particular embraced him. It was in 1994 that Kadhem relocated to Cairo and in 1995 he faced the Egyptian audience for the first time at the Cairo International Conference Center in 1995 with “Salamtak Men El Aah" (Get Well Soon, which he addressed to Iraq) and was a hit in almost every Arab country. The song was written, composed and performed by Kadhem and thus manifested his talents were multiple and exceeded singing. The album also contained his first sung poems for great Nizar Qabbani "Ikhtari" ( I give you the choice) that was a classic masterpiece of composition & signing that was a turning point in Kadhem's career, and rather recent Arab singing that was far from such style. Since then more and more requests started rain on him, and every time he performed he repeat more success and reverence.
The star was now well known and continued to sell thousands of copies of his albums. Next to come was “Ba'ad Alhob” in 1995 which was no different than the previous albums.
It's worthy mentioning here that Kadhem's collaboration with creative poet Kareem Al-Iraqi, that started since they first teamed in "Shi Jaha En-Nas" (What's Wrong With People?), the intro and outro song of an Iraqi serial called "Nadia", is a very important aspect of Kadhem's career as they made very successful and popular songs both in colloquial and standard Arabic and till the moment they still make such successful teaming.
By 1995, when he settled in Cairo, As-Saher's songs were focused more on standard poems and his records were consistently topping the list of best-selling albums.
In October of 1996 and by a coincidence, great poet Nizar Qabbani saw Kadhem on TV as he sang Mawwal Al Ghurba, not only was the fragrance of cardamom in Kadhem`s voice and Kareem`s poetry savored, but the scent of Iraq was also invoked into reminiscence. Nizar Qabbani being very touched by this piece of work penned a letter to Kareem Al- Iraqi expressing his commendations.
With great Nizar, Kadhem intensely carried on perhaps the most important artistic collaboration of his career to date. Prior to his death in 1998, Qabbani wrote lyrics for some 30 of Kadhem's songs. Having once created poems that were sung by greatest Arab singers, Qabbani contented himself during his final years writing lyrics exclusively for the young Iraqi singer he considered "the son of his heart."
Armed with his solid academic background and his passion for music, As-Saher carefully selected the most touching of Nizar Qabbani's odes, set them to music and charmed the Egyptians. "I know Egyptians love standard poems most," he smiles. How could they not? For decades, the music scene was occupied by shallow pop songs belted out by singers renowned less for their vocal talents than for their irrepressible energy. Although the consensus was that this was not music, the Egyptians couldn't exactly shut their ears. In 1996, As-Saher released his ever popular album “Fi Madraset Al-Hob” (In the School of Love) that it was another much expected success story and tens of thousands of fans knew the words by heart:
Your love, my lady, taught me the worst habits
It taught me to read my coffee cup a thousand times each night,
Try herbal medicine and knock at the doors of fortunetellers
It taught me to go out and count the pavements,
To follow your face in the rain
And search for it by the light of the cars at night
However, for many years, he was marked as the man who sings Zidini 'Ishqan (Give me More Passion). Again, Qabbani's words stuck.
I am the oldest city of sadness and my wound is a cryptic hieroglyph
My pain is a flock of doves that extends from Baghdad to China
Kadhem then was far beyond proving his talents to anyone but was actually quenching the thirst of the audience who had been deprived of such meaningful poems and songs for so long.
This album was followed by a series of successful albums that contained standard poems, mostly by Qabbani, as well as other songs that ranged from Iraqi folklore to modern, cheerful dance tunes.
As he progressed, however, As-Saher made a point of proving that, although he composes the music to all his songs, he is capable of producing fresh and innovative harmonies each time. He also insists that his complete orchestra use a wide array of instruments in each song. The length of standard poems gave him space to compose complex music notes and allows for variation in the same song. Ana wa Layla (Layla and I) is a case in point; the melody seems to change almost entirely as the poem develops. The introduction to this song, as is the case with all his poems, is the most impressive, opera-like part.
Despite its complexity, Ana wa Layla was a hit as soon as it was released in 1998. To As-Saher's surprise, the Egyptian audience begged for "Layla" at the '98 Marina concert. He apologized: "I'm really sorry, I can't sing Ana wa Layla, it needs a lot of practice and we haven't done that," he told the thousands of fans massed in front of him. And that is typical: he will never perform a song unless he is sure he masters it perfectly. Since that time, there is no single concert in which he can avoid singing this poem to the restless fans who never accept any excuse regarding this song that was voted in at number six in a poll of the world's most popular songs held by the BBC World Service
The album that followed, Habibti wal-Matar (My Love and the Rain) contained five poems by Qabbani. The album was a peerless masterpiece of classic singing combining classic Arabic and western music and is considered by some critics and fans, other than Kadhem's passionate fans of course, as the best album in modern Arabic singing. The poems in this album represented a very rare brew of extremely touching romantic lyrics coated by masterly composed and arranged elegant orchestral music. The posters that came along with this album also featured As-Saher's new, sleek look. His Travolta-like hair was now much shorter, modern, and clipped into a tiny fringe over his forehead. He donned stylish black outfits and was quoted everywhere saying "black is my favorite color." His new look was shown to advantage in professional shots, truly becoming of the star/idol figure. The shy Iraqi boy inside As-Saher isn't scared of the camera anymore. He knows how to pose, looking directly at the lens, firing that I-know-I'm-good-looking look that so few women can actually resist. And onstage, he carries himself more gracefully.
After that album, Kadhem released a very successful album too "Al Hobb Al Mostaheel or "An Impossible Love" in 2000, the first of his albums to be given an official American release by Mondo Melodia after the album dominated charts around the Arab world.
Year after another Kadhem keeps astonishing his big fans with elevated classic singing well-mixed with modern compositions, rhythms and arrangements, depicting so elegant and touching aptly-composed romantic lyrics whether in standard Arabic or refined colloquial.
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Big thank you to Muhammad Zahra (AKA Laureate_Kazem)
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