Nawal Al Zoghbi
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| نوال الزغبي Nawal Al Zoghbi |
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| Background information | ||
| Born | June 29, 1972 (age 34) | |
| Origin | Byblos, Lebanon |
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| Genre(s) | Arabic music | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer | |
| Years active | 1992—present | |
| Label(s) | Relax In (1992—1993) - (1997—1999) Music Box International (1994—1996) Rotana (1999—2002) Alam El Phan (2002—present) |
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| Website | NawalAlZoghbi.net | |
Nawal Al Zoghbi (Arabic نوال الزغبي), full name Nawal George Al Zoghbi, is a successful Lebanese singer, performing in Arabic and with a fan base throughout the Arabic-speaking world and extending into Europe. She has had a musical career that spans from 1991 to the present day.
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[edit] Biography
Nawal Al Zoghbi was born June 29, 1972 in Lebanon. She began singing at an early age, despite familial opposition to the lifestyle of a musician (her family changed their minds when they realized she was serious in her ambitions). She is influenced by the work of pioneering Arabic pop singers such as Egypt's Umm Kulthum and the very famous Arab singer Samira Said.
[edit] Recording career
Nawal started her singing career after participating in Studio El Fan in 1988, she became a professional singer in 1991. Al-Zoghbi released her debut album titled "Wehyati Andak" in 1992, when she returned to her birth city, Beirut, after a two-year singing sojourn in the Gulf countries. Since that time, she has released seven other albums, each proving popular in the Arab world. Nawal takes herself seriously though, and has made it her business to develop extensive knowledge about what's happening within the Arabic music scene.
In 1998 Nawal Al-Zoghbi released her album and single titled Mandam aleik. The song was apparently originally sung by Syrian singer Houwaida. It was a huge success to Houwaida, but a while later Al-Zoghbi released the album with her version of the song. When inquired about allegations of taking Houwaida's debut song, Al-Zoghbi claimed she had the song for a while and recorded it prior to Houwaida's release. On television interviews, she showed papers showing lyrics of the song claiming that these are the originals and that Houwaida took it from her.
The song is available on both singers' records and they got their share of popularity mostly after the conflict. It became one of Nawals most popular hits, and is often requested by fans at her concerts.
Nawal al Zoghbis album Maloum was released back in 1999 did not receive the same level of success as previous albums. Nawal Al-Zoghbi herself declared regret to rush and release it since the previous one, Mandam Aleik, was released a year earlier.
In 2002, Al Zoghbi cooperated with music video director Sherif Sabri to come out with a new look for her song Elli Tmaneito. After airing teasers on Egyptian satellite channel, Dream TV. After full broadcast, Al Zoghbi worked hard on promoting the album by appearing in several TV channels, printed media and more. The album was very successful and included 2 music videos, Elli tmaneito and Byilba'lak.
After a two year break, Nawal's next album Eineik Kaddabeen was released in the summer of 2004 at a lavish album launch party in Cairo in. This album was accompanied by two music videos: Eineik Kaddabeen and Bi'einek. After promoting this album, Nawal then began work on her most recent album Yama Alou. She first released the single Rohi Ya Rohi in August 2005. Her first live performance of this was at a concert she held in the Hammersmith Apollo, London. She also made a music video for this song. The next single to be released from Yama Alou was Shou Akhbarak. This was released in February 2006. She also filmed a music video for this.
As part of the promotion for her 11th album Yama Alou, her production company, Alam el Phan began to play short clips from some of the upcoming albums songs on a telephone line that listeners could call. Shortly after, an advertisement campaign was launched. It began with a television advert showing the camera moving from a womans boots upwards, but stopping before her face was revealed, the screen went dark and the word 'soon' appeared on the screen. A week or so later, the next advertisement followed a similar format to the previous one, however, in this new advert, the face of the woman was revealed and the figure was Nawal herself. After this, the next advert showed clips of Nawal from the albums promotional photo shoot while playing small clips of the songs 'Yama Alou', 'Aghla el Habbayib', 'El Assi', 'Habaytak' and 'Shou Akhbarak'. The television campaign was accompanied by large billboards and posters of Nawal in Egypt and Lebanon. The music video and song for Yama Alou, began to air at the beginning of July 2006, roughly a week before the album release date. The music video was aired on the Mazzika and Zoom music channels across the middle east and the song was played exclusively on the Sawt el Ghad radio station in Lebanon and on Nagoum FM in Egypt. Yama Alou was intended to be released throughout the middle east on the 17th of July 2006, however, due to the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, its release was postponed. It was then released on 26 July 2006 in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In the following weeks, the album was made available in other countries around the middle east and was finally released in Lebanon on the 14 September 2006, once the war was over.
On the 23rd of March 2007, it was announced that Nawal al Zoghbi will be producing her next album with the production company Rotana. Nawal officially joined Rotana at a press conference at the Movenpick in Beirut on the 28th March 2007.
[edit] Family
She is the eldest among her three brothers and one sister. Nawal Al Zoghbi is married to Elie Deeb and has three children - daughter Tia and twin sons Georgy and Joey. She prefers to keep her personal life private. She released a song titled Tia which was dedicated to her daughter. She owns a little production company named after her daughter as well, Tia Productions. Nawal is always known by her distinguished performance, and she always cares about her looks, as every year she keeps on changing her looks. It was considered that the Eli-Tmanetoh look was too over. Nawal always relies on her music art by looking through the lyrics and the compositions. She does not mind if her album takes more than a year to get released, as long it is successful and predicted to be the best album of the year. This is one of her tip to her success.
[edit] Politics
Nawal has released a song dedicated to Palestine called "Ya Quds" (O, Jerusalem).
Nawal participated in a patriotic song called "Ya Omati" with many other Arabic singers. She also recorded a song called "Hikayt Watan" with a number of Lebanese singers for the liberation of south Lebanon. As well as the song "La Ma Kholsit Le Hkayeh" after the death of Rafic Hariri.
[edit] Albums
- Wehyati Andak (1992)
- Ayza El Radd (1994)
- Balaee Fi Zamany (1995)
- Min Habibi Ana "Single Duet with Wael Kfoury" (1995)
- Habeit Ya Leil (1997)
- Mandam Aleik (1998)
- Maloum (1999)
- El Layali (2000)
- Tool Omri (2001)
- Elli Tmaneito (2002)
- Eineik Kaddabeen (2004)
- Yama Alou (2006)
[edit] Awards
1997
- "Lions" Award for the best singer in Lebanon & Jordan
- "Best Female Singer" in Lebanon
- "Best Female Singer" in Arabic World
1998
- "Best Singer" in the UAE
1999
- "First Arabic Singer"
2000
- Best Lebanese Singer
- Best Arabic Singer (Egypt)
2004
- Arab Music Awards: Best Female Singer
- Arab Music Awards: Overall Best Song
- Best Arabic Singer (Egypt)
- Best Album (Lebanon)
- Best Lebanese Singer
2005
- Best Arabic Singer (Egypt)
2006
- Best Arabic Singer (T-A-C)
- Album of The Year "Yama Alou" (T-A-C)
- Song of the Year "Yama Alou" (T-A-C)
- Clip of the Year "Yama Alou" (T-A-C)
- Best Dancing Song of the Year "Yama Alou" (T-A-C)
- Best Arabic Singer (T-A-C)
- Album of The Year "Yama Alou" (Lebanon Entertainment)
- Song of the Year "Yama Alou" (Lebanon Entertainment)
- Clip of the Year "Yama Alou" (Lebanon Entertainment)
- Best Dancing Song of the Year "Yama Alou" (Lebanon Entertainment)
- Artist of the Week- 10 Times (Lebanon Entertainment)
- Best Arabic Singer Fans (Lebanon Entertainment)
- Best Arabian Artist (Arabian Awards)
[edit] Endorsements
Nawal al Zoghbi has worked with Pepsi since 2001. She has made a number of advertisements and has used Pepsi products in some of her music videos.
- 2001 - Nasini Leih tv advert: In this advert, Nawal sees a bottle of Pepsi on a window ledge and begins to sing. People gather round and a boy opens his window to see what is going on, as he does this, he knocks the bottle down and Nawal gets it.
- 2002 - Football tv advert: Nawal plays football while singing a song. This advert also contains appearances from some international footballers.
- 2003 - Elli Tmaneito tv advert: A young man opens a bottle of Pepsi and takes a sip, as he does, he begins to see Nawal everywhere. He sees her in billboards, t-shirts, televisions. He even mistakes a police officer for Nawal. In the end, he sees Nawal get out of a car surrounded by reporters. As she walks up to him, he runs out of Pepsi and it turns out the 'Nawal' was an old lady. He quickly goes to buy more Pepsi.
- 2004 - Eineik Kaddabeen music video: Nawal is seen drinking Pepsi with her instructor after a work out in the Eineik Kaddabeen music video. There was also a Pepsi logo on the album cover.
- 2005 - Rohi ya Rohi music video: Nawal is cycling through a park and sees young people roller blading between cans of Pepsi. Later on in the video, Nawal is spray painting on the pavement when a little boy brings her a can of pepsi that she drinks.
