Monday, February 23, 2009

The singer Wadad (or Widad)

I received the following message (I cite with the permission of its author): "I read your note about the late singer Wadad, Bahiyya 3awwad. She was my grand father's wife, so the step mother of my late mother (By the way she named herself Wadad after my mother, the eldest daughter of her husband at that time.. ). Abdel Jalil Wehbe (my grand father) was a famous song writer that I am sure you heard of. He wrote more than 5000 popular Lebanese songs (3alloma lloma lloma, ya bou el3ouyon helwin, babouri rayeh rayeh babouri jay, habibi bi heb el tech, etc..). So in all the boring condolences articles about Wadad, NO ONE mentioned that she was Jewish, one of the very few Lebanese Jews who stayed in Lebanon after the war. She still has a sister living in Beirut. She was a very funny life loving woman and was very loyal to Lebanon. I think it was a detail worth mentioning and I hate the fact that they burried her on Islamic Sharia rules whereas, to my knowledge, never changed her religion."