In Paris, Warda sang for the first time.

I met the late star Warda many times in Cairo, Beirut and Paris, as she was a friend of my father, Badih Serbey, for decades. Yesterday, I was passing by the Palais des Congrès in Paris and recalled the wonderful concerts she held there in 1978. My father told me that shortly before that, her belongings were stolen from the hotel where she was staying in Paris. Two viscose coats were taken from her room. She took the necessary measures and informed the police. She felt angry, but as soon as she walked in the street and saw the advertisements for her upcoming concerts crowding the pictures of the candidates for the French parliamentary elections, she calmed down because she loved her art and her audience. In the same place, Warda held successful concerts in 1995. On the eleventh anniversary of her death, I will tell you what I learned about the beginning of her singing career.

The late great star Warda was born in the Latin Quarter, in Paris, where her father owned a hotel and a restaurant, which later began to present oriental artistic variety. Warda used to steal two hours of sleep to listen to the band’s rehearsals and sing to herself, until Ahmed Tijani came to the restaurant. He worked for the (Pate Marconi) company and for the Paris Radio directed to the Arabs of North Africa and heard her singing a song by Laila Murad. He was impressed by her voice and recorded a demo record for her. When she succeeded, she sang on the radio, and the song was (Ya Omi). Suddenly, the police arrested her father because they found weapons for the Algerian revolutionaries in his restaurant, so the restaurant was closed.

During her father’s imprisonment, Warda began singing, and when he was released from prison, the family immigrated to Lebanon, the country of Warda’s mother, who is from the Yamout family of Beirut. The family lived in an apartment on Hamra Street, and Warda signed a contract to sing in Aley at the Tanios nightclub, then participated in a major concert in Syria that was broadcast on the radio, and in Beirut Director Helmy Rafla met her to offer her the movie (Almaz), and from Beirut to Cairo, her first song was in 1960 (Haqoulak Haga), composed by the late musician Riad Al Sunbati.

This image has been converted from the original medium format film, resulting in a sharp and detailed image.

By May Serbey Chehab, from the Book "Boulevard of Stars: The Golden Age of Arab Entertainment".