Sabah (singer)

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Sabah in one of her earlier films

Sabah and her former fiancé model Amr Mihio "Mr.Lebanon 2004"

Sabah (Arabic:صباح) (b.1927–) is an Arab singer and actress whose career has stretched from the mid-1930s to the present day.

Sabah was born as Janet Fighali in Beirut, Lebanon, although other records state that her birth place is the village of Wadi Shahroor. She began singing in the 1940s, then started to acting in Egyptian movies while continuing to sing. She has released over 50 albums and has acted in 86 movies, as well as almost 20 stage plays. She is among the most prolific Arabic-language singers, with a reported 3,500 songs.

Still a prominent performer at 80 years of age, she continues to perform both in concert and on television, including such programs as Lebanon's Star Academy (the Arabic equivalent of the United Kingdom's Fame Academy) where she sang her new single on a stage lined with mannequins displaying costumes from several of her early films and musical plays.

The singer is known to fans by the diminutive "Sabbouha" and is also called "Al Shahroura," or the singing bird.

In 2005, she released a new Dance single. Her 2006 release, a duet with Lebanese singer Rola, is a remake of a 1960s hit. The accompanying video, in which Sabah is shown as "the notorious diva" to whom her younger colleague pays tribute, has received wide play on Arabic music channels.

[edit] Marriages

Sabah has been married seven times, and most recently was engaged to Amr Mihio ("Mr. Lebanon") in 2003. The relationship did not last, and in 2004 she admitted that it had been a stunt to catapult Omar, who was starting his acting career, into the spotlight. Her former husbands include Najib Shammas, Anwar Mansy, composer Baligh Hamdy, Egyptian television presenter Ahmed Farrag, Rushdy Abaza (to whom she was married for three days in 1967), Joe Hammoud, Wassim Tabbara, and Fadi Kuntar, alias Fadi Lubnan.

She has two children, Sabah (The Godfather) (by Najib Chammas), is married to the beautiful and charming Zeina Chammas. Her other child, the actress Howayda Mansy (by Anwar Mansy), lives in the United States. She has two grandchildren Danielle Chammas and Naji Chammas who live in California.