Fadwa Abeid: An Arab American Singer Finds a More Lucrative Career in the Arab World
Fadwa Abeid or Fadwa Abed
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| Fadwa Abed in 1954 at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. Fordson Yearbook (1954), 144. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Since we launched Midwest Mahjar, rare has been the opportunity to speak to any of the artists who performed during the 78 RPM era. Most are no longer with us. We've communicated with the children of some musicians. Family members we've managed to track down include the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of 78-era Arab American musicians. "Fadwa Obeid" is on a Wiki-list of living Lebanese women singers, but with no birthdate or link to additional information. An Arabic-language Wikipedia entry offers information about the height of her career in the 1970s and makes vague reference to her retirement, but says nothing of her early life, early career, or life in retirement. Imagine our surprise when researching Arab American singer Fadwa Abeid, we located contact information for her.
Fadwa Abed, Fadwa Abaid, or Fadwa Obeid (also Ebeid) was born 2 March 1935, or 1939 depending on the documents, in Los Angeles, California to Sadie Alhandy Abed and Joseph Abed. Fadwa was a second-generation US-born American on both sides. Her mother, Sadie Alhandy, was born in Port Huron, Michigan in 1912. Her father, Joe Abed, was born in Detroit the same year. Sadie Alhandy and Joe Abed wed in Los Angeles in January 1934. Joe worked as a candymaker and Fadwa was born a little more than a year after their wedding. On the heels of Fadwa’s birth, the family travelled to Lebanon at the request of her paternal grandfather – the family remained there for approximately ten years.
Fadwa Abed, Fadwa Abaid, or Fadwa Obeid (also Ebeid) was born 2 March 1935, or 1939 depending on the documents, in Los Angeles, California to Sadie Alhandy Abed and Joseph Abed. Fadwa was a second-generation US-born American on both sides. Her mother, Sadie Alhandy, was born in Port Huron, Michigan in 1912. Her father, Joe Abed, was born in Detroit the same year. Sadie Alhandy and Joe Abed wed in Los Angeles in January 1934. Joe worked as a candymaker and Fadwa was born a little more than a year after their wedding. On the heels of Fadwa’s birth, the family travelled to Lebanon at the request of her paternal grandfather – the family remained there for approximately ten years.
In the south Beirut
suburb of Haret Hreik, Fadwa attended a private catholic school for girls run by nuns where she learned Arabic and French. It was not in Lebanon, but Cairo,
Egypt, where Fadwa got her start in music.
She maintained a fondness for poetry and the spoken word and met a
number of well-known Egyptian composers.
Riadh Al Sunbati stands out as one of the composers Fadwa met whose songs
she performed. Sunbati was best known for his work with Umm Kulthum and
Asmahan. In 1946, at the age of eleven, Fadwa returned to the United States
with her mother and moved to Dearborn, Michigan. Fadwa attended and graduated
from Fordson High School where she joined the French Club, Drama Club, and
Debate Club. Her classmates elected her Vice-President of the French Club.
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| Fadwa Abed in the high school French Club. Third row from bottom, second from the right. Fordson High School Yearbook (1954), 88. Courtesy of Ancestry.com |
Fawda emerged as a
bit of a child prodigy. She was 17 when her likeness graced ads for the Eastern
Star Restaurant in Brooklyn in 1953. In mid-October 1953, Abed sang accompanied
by Jalil Azzouz at the United Nations Association of Greater Chicago
celebration in recognition of the UN’s eighth year. The Chicago Art Institute
hosted the event and Fadwa appeared during the “Songs of Araby” portion of the
program. A month previous to this, a
reporter for The Caravan wrote of the Labor Day Mahrajan in New Haven,
Connecticut, “The beautiful young singer Fadwa Abed was a knockout. Only 17….
Why couldn’t she have been ten years older? Why couldn’t I have been twenty
years younger? Dawn the luck!!!!” This was the same Labor Day mahrajan that
Mohammed el Bakkar kicked off the festivities, Najeeba Morad and Elias Younis performed and Jamili Matouk took the stage in an impromptu performance. Fadwa
held her own with these well-known musical veterans and she was not even out of
high school.
Abed’s star rose
quickly and bookings increased exponentially. In October 1953, Abed joined Joe and Leo Budway, John Fayod, and Clovis Bistany at a Detroit farewell party for
Naif Agby. Additional gigs included the Junior Ma-Asser Hafli in Danbury,
Connecticut and the annual event hosted by the Saint Nicholas Young Men’s Club
in Brooklyn, in November 1953. Other musicians who performed at the Saint
Nicholas celebration included Elia Baida, Anton Abdelahad, Philip Solomon, Naim Karacand, Joe Budway and Fatthalla Ayad. Violinist Sami el Shawa attended as a
guest, but eventually surrendered to crowd requests to play a few songs.
On June 17, 1954,
Fadwa Abed graduated from Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan – well
beyond the city limits and across Arab America, her musical talent preceded
her. In this same year, Fadwa recorded seven songs on four 78 RPM discs for AlbertRashid’s Al-Chark record label.
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| Fadwa Abed's singles on Albert Rashid's Al-Chark. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux Collection. Fadwa Abeid, "Wahed Ethnein" Al-Chark 602 - https://youtu.be/WphPtci6nAQ Fadwa Abeid, "Kalmet Ahebak," Al-Chark 603 - https://youtu.be/Gv5bq8_aucU Fadwa Abeid, "El Furga Harraga," Al-Chark 601 AB - https://youtu.be/XpZT3Ve3c2Q Fadwa Abeid, "Meejana & Ataba," Al-Chark 600A - https://youtu.be/Fy17j6ekEEY Fadwa Abeid, "Mawal," Al-Chark 600B - https://youtu.be/lxmOa1Ns-xo |
In May 1956, rumors
spread in Arab American communities, across the United States, and then to the Caravan,
that Fadwa Abed had married. Fadwa quickly put these rumors to rest and assured
fans that any wedding or marriage plans she had would be announced by her
personally in the Caravan. According to Fadwa, the person she considered
the love of her life was a physician she was engaged to who died in an
accident. Another suitor worked for Egyptian Administrative Control Authority,
but she never considered him a viable option for marriage. Presumably, Fadwa secreted
her way out of Egypt because he was too possessive. With her career running on all cylinders,
Fadwa didn’t marry until the 2000s.
Concert promoters billed Fadwa along with Alamphon
star Amer Khaddaj. Both singers performed at the sixth annual convention for
Federation of Islamic Associations in August 1956 and were backed by Naim
Karacand, Jalil Azzouz, and Mike & George Hamway. Some 1000 American Muslims attended the convention
in New York City. At age 18, the Caravan dubbed Fadwa the “the new
bulbul of Syrian Lebanese entertainment.” The Knights of Lebanon event in
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania stood out as one of her most exciting public
performances. Syrians immigrated to Wilkes Barre mostly between 1887 and 1920
from Wadi-Nasaara and Al-Koura. The community grew slowly, but surely and
established Saint Mary’s Syrian Orthodox Church in 1904 and the Maronite
community split and established Saint George Maronite Church in 1913, and Saint
Anthony Maronite Church in 1912. Beginning in the 1930s, Wilkes Barre’s
mahrajans became a routine but mandatory stop. Fadwa’s year included concerts
at the Midwest SOYO in Akron, Ohio, performances at the Western Federation Convention,
an engagement at the Islamic Federation, and several gigs in California.
Only a few weeks
after her gig in Pennsylvania, Fadwa played at twenty-third annual Saint Elijah
Syrian Orthodox Festival in Ottawa, Canada. Again, Abed performed with Naim
Karacand and Mike Hamway. This time oudist Joe Budway joined them. As a result
of this engagement, her international notoriety expanded.
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| Advertisement to book Fadwa Abed, The Caravan, 5 May 1960. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Amazingly, Fadwa
balanced college and a singing career, no small feat, to be sure. Over the years, she attended Henry Ford
College, Wayne State University, and the newly-opened University of
Michigan-Dearborn. When Saint George Orthodox Church in Terre Haute, Indiana
held its dedication services in May 1958, a who’s who of Antiochian Orthodox
dignitaries from the United States and Canada showed up including Metropolitan
Anthony Bashir. Featured entertainers Fadwa Abed sang, Antoine Hage played
violin, Jalil Azzouz played oud, and Charlie Zayed played derbekee. A few
months later, the Cedar Rapids Attiyeh Benevolent Society hosted what was
billed as the “Largest Gathering of Arabic-Speaking People in the Mid-west”
during Labor Day weekend. By January 1959, the Organization of Arab Students
celebrated Fadwa with a story in its national newsletter. Highlighting her
beauty, love of poetry, singing ability, and brains as a “psychology turned
political science major:”
From the very
first day at the convention, Fadwa became the center of attraction and admiration.
It is a very pleasant surprise to find a top-rated singer like Fadwa combine a
very remarkable voice with truly beautiful features. She had the singing and
dramatic ability to keep you on the edge of your seat or take you along in a
dreamy passionate flight.
Mistakenly, the
article claimed that Fadwa was “originally from Beirut.” It was one of the only
sources, however, to make note of the multiple spellings of her surname “Abed
(Obeid)”.
A series of local and regional SOYO meetings guaranteed
Fadwa steady work in 1960 and 1961 as rumors spread that the young singer had
gotten engaged. May 21 and 22 she
performed at the Washington, DC Hafli to raise funds for the Arab Refugees. Bookings
in the United States slowed in 1961 on the mahrajan circuit but Fadwa still
played the occasional event. Abed and Joe and Leo Budway appeared as the
featured act on the night of the Saint Elias Eastern Region 2nd
Delegates Grand Hafla in New Castle, Pennsylvania, held from June 3, 4, and 5 in
1960. Less than a month later the
Midwest SOYO sponsored its 13th Annual Convention in Grand Rapids,
Michigan during the longer period of June 29-July 3. Fadwa, Naif Agby, and Mohammed El-Akkad supplied the entertainment. Abed
spent Labor Day at the Lebanese Mahrajan in Trenton, New Jersey. Sacred Heart
Church in Caldwell, New Jersey, hosted its July festival featuring the regular
cast of musicians Fadwa, Tony Abdelahad, Naim Karacand, and Mike and George
Hamway. The year 1961 closed with a New Year’s Eve party sponsored by Saint
Mary’s Syrian Orthodox Church. This was a rather small, important affair where
Fadwa and Jalil Azzouz provided the entertainment. As Abed’s popularity
decreased in the United States, she increasingly became a highly sought-after singer
in Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt, and Syria.
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| Ad for 195 Florida State Syrian Lebanese American Convention poster, 18 April 1957. Courtesy of Newspapers.com |
Through Albert Rashid in the United States and other
musicians in Lebanon, Fadwa came to work with Farid al Atrash. In 1967, she and
Farid al Atrash recorded Biladi Ya Biladi on a 7”, 45 RMP record on Parlophone
Records. As early as 1957, Parlophone had entered into a business partnership
with EMI (Electrical & Music Industries), which managed a host of labels
including Abdullah Chahine’s Voix De L’Orient label. Most of Fadwa’s singles
and LP collaborations appeared as a result of this larger partnership with a
few exceptions. A performance with Yousef Azar, Duryad Lahem,nand Abou Sayah at the
1971 Byblos Festival Ya Leil appeared as an LP on Morico Records. Three years
later, the singles "Aktar Ma Baddo Baddi" / "Ala Wayn" sold on Vox De L’Orient 45 RPM
With her increased popularity, Fadwa appeared on television
talk shows, in dramatic television series, and movies as she continued to release
songs release on 45 RPM and for LP compilations. In 1976, Fadwa appeared on the
television series I Am You. The following year, she starred opposite
Mahmoud Saeed in Alia & Issam in the role of Alia. Fawda, additional,
had two songs on a compilation LP which that included music by Sabah and Farid al
Atrash.
The outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 and its
continuance for fifteen years, complicated travel to and from Lebanon to such a
degree that international commercial flights all but ceased (with the exception
of Middle East Airlines and Tran Mediterranean Airways flights). Fadwa
performed in Jordan, Syria, Morocco, and Egypt. Recording dates or appearances
in Lebanon required travel to Syria to get to Jordan and other locations.
Eventually, the war made travel so burdensome that Fadwa’s concert tours suffered
serious setbacks and restricted her ability to visit family enough that she cut
her career short. Fadwa returned to the United States.
As the Civil War waged on back in Lebanon, Fadwa disappeared
from the public eye living comfortably in Dearborn, home to over 60,000 people
of Lebanese descent. Nineteen hundred ninety saw an end to the Lebanese Civil
War. Six years later, Lebanese Prime Minster Rafic Al-Hariri visited Detroit
and Dearborn to encourage Lebanese Americans to do four things to help Lebanon:
1) pray for the country’s wellbeing; 2) financially and culturally invest in
the country; 3) send money to family still in Lebanon and buy Lebanese produced
goods; and 4) encourage the US to lift the eleven-year travel ban on travel to
Lebanon. Fadwa Abeid was among the few Dearborn residents who commented on the
impact of the war and subsequent US travel restrictions, “It’s quite unpleasant
if we want to go see our relatives, we can’t go, even if you have an ailing
grandmother. It’s very sad.”
In the early 2000s, Fadwa Abeid met and married Ford Motors
engineer and physicist Tahir Mansour. Both Tahir and Fadwa battled cancer in
their later lives. Tahir died in September 2018. Fadwa is a cancer survivor and
lives in Michigan. She and Leila Mazloom are two of the only Arab American
singers left from period that ethnomusicologist Anne Rasmussen has labeled the "middle
period" of Arab American music.
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| CD for Sahrana Album by Fadwa Abeid from Richard Breaux collection. "Hamel El Hawa," © Fadwa Abeid https://soundcloud.com/user-387335530/hamel-el-hawa |
Special thanks to Fadwa Abeid Mansour.
Richard M. Breaux
© Midwest Mahjar
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