| نوال الزغبي Nawal Al Zoghbi/Nawal Al Zoghby |
|
|---|---|
| Birth name | Nawal George Al Zoghbi |
| Born | 29 June 1972 |
| Origin | Byblos, Lebanon |
| Genres | Arabic music, pop music, pop folk |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Relax In (1992—1993) – (1997—1999) Music Box International (1994—1996) Rotana (1999—2002) (2007—2009) Alam elPhan(2002—2007) Melody Music (2009—) |
| Website | [1] |
Nawal Al Zoghbi (Arabic: نوال الزغبي, born 29 June 1972, Byblos, Lebanon) is a Lebanese singer. Performing in Arabic she has a solid fan base throughout the Arab world and extending into Iran and North America and Europe.[1][2][3] Her musical career has spanned over 20 years. Zoghbi believes her success is due to the true emotion she delivers through her voice. She is quoted as saying "whether a voice is big or small, if it lacks emotion it will never succeed".[4]
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Nawal George Al Zoghbi is a Lebanese singer. Born to a Maronite Catholic family in the coastal small town of Jal Al-Deeb,she holds Canadian citizenship. Al Zoghbi is the oldest born among three brothers and one sister.[5] Al Zoghbi began singing at an early age, despite familial opposition to the lifestyle of a musician. Members of her family changed their minds when they realized she was serious in her ambitions. In 1988 she participated in the Lebanese talent show Studio El Fan.In 1990 she married Lebanese music manager Elie Deeb and went on to have three children with him. The couple legally separated in 2008, Al Zoghbi is currently waiting for the Maronite Catholic Church to recognize their divorce.[6][7][8][9]
Inspired by her appearance on Studio El Fan in 1988 (singing competition), Nawal became a professional singer in 1991. After a visit to her native city of Beirut, she released her debut album, "Wehyati Andak" in 1992.
With that success she released a string of hit albums such as "Ayza El Radd" and "Balaee Fi Zamany". The video, "Wala Behimini", from the album "Balaee Fi Zamany", secured her stardom with her image being broadcast on several billboards and in magazines such as the Arabic language's version of Elle.
In 1996 Nawal released one of her most successful albums to date, named "Habeit Ya Leil". The album spawned three hit singles with "Habeit Ya Leil", "Noss El Alb", and "Ghareeb El Ray". In 1998, Nawal Al-Zoghbi released her album and single, "Mandam aleik". Nawal's next album Maloum was released in 1999. Her next two releases "El Layali" (2000) and "Tool Omri" (2001) were both launched within a year of each other, and provided Nawal with continued success, reclaiming her spot in Arabic pop. In 2002, she worked with controversial music video director Sherif Sabri to create a new image for her song "Elli Tmaneito".
Nawal was angry with Sherif, so she stopped dealing with him. Teasers were aired on Egyptian satellite channel, Dream TV. After the full broadcast, the album received lukewarm reviews. Al Zoghbi blames its failure on her decision to not promote the album. Nevertheless, the album of the same name spawned two successful singles, 'Elli Tmaneito' and 'Byilba'lak'.
After a two-year break, her next album, "Eineik Kaddabeen", was released in the summer of 2004 at a lavish album-launch party in Cairo Inn. This album was accompanied by two singles: "Eineik Kaddabeen" and "Bi'einek". Immediately after promoting that album, Nawal then began work on "Yama Alou". She released the first single, "Rouhi Ya Rouhi", in August 2005. Her first live performance of "Rohi Ya Rohi" was at a concert she held at the Hammersmith Apollo, in London. The next single released from Yama Alou was "Shou Akhbarak" in February 2006.
As part of the promotion for her 11th album, "Yama Alou", her production company, Alam elPhan, began previewing 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 woman's 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 album's 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 for Yama Alou, began to air at the beginning of July 2006, roughly a week before the album's 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 as well as on Nagoum FM in Egypt.
Yama Alou was intended to be released throughout the Middle East on 17 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 14 September 2006, once the war was over.[10]
On the 23rd of March 2007, it was announced that Nawal al Zoghbi would 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 of March, 2007. At a press conference held by LG Global at Dusit Dubai on 25 April 2007, it was announced that Nawal Al Zoghbi will be the face to advertise LG cellular phones which the company will put out in 2007–2008 in the Middle East. The conference was attended by a large crowd from various media, which exceeded a variety of over 100 means of information between written, visual and audible.[11]
On Sunday, 20 May 2007, Al Zoughbi was a guest on Dubai TV's hit show Taratata along with four other singers. Nawal sang duets with the other four singers who will be making appearances on the show. Ibrahim El Hakami winner of Super Star 4) and the Lebanese-Canadian singer Massari were among the four guests that appeared and sang with Nawal on Sunday. On Tuesday, 12 June 2007 Nawal released the music video of her song, "Aghla El Habayib" from her album "Yama Alou" which was a continuation to the song "Shou Akhbarak" from the same album.[12] On 8 August 2007, Al Zoughbi returned to the Carthage Festival after an eight-year absence.
In early January 2008, billboards appeared in cities across the Arabic world with the phrase 'Sawa Min Jadeed' (English: Back Together) and the letters NZ. This was a pre-release promo to advertise the reuniting of Rotana and Nawal and the release of her new album. On 10 January 2008, Rotana began airing TV adverts showing samples from the new album, entitled "Khalas Sameht". The first single from the album "Albi Is'alou" ("Ask My Heart") began airing on Arabic radio stations on 15 January 2008.
"Khalas Sameht" was released on 22 January 2008 in Nawal's native Lebanon. It was released internationally the next day. It reached # 1 on the charts the first day, and sold extremely well the first week.[13] The first music video from the new album, titled Albi Esalou, was first shown on TV channels on 5 February 2008. The album was then officially launched at a press conference in Cairo, Egypt on 12 February 2008. "Leih Moushtalak" was the second music video for "Khalas Sameht". It was released on 25 July 2008. Later it debuted at number 2 on Rotana's PEPSI Top 20.
Nawal was part of the opening of Atlantis, the Palm in Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. She opened for Kylie Minogue and received a lot press coverage.
On 29 May 2009, Nawal released the single, "Mona Ainah", which is in the Khaliji dialect. It began airing on radio stations in the Middle East, and was performed first time on the programme Star Academy 6, on the same day. After much problems with Rotana not wanting to air it, "Mona Ainah" was then released by Melody in October 2009, as a music video directed by Yehya Saade. Al Zoghbi spent her own money to make the video.[14] Nawal left Rotana in October 2009, and signed on with Melody who will produce her next album, that was due out for release in the summer of 2010. However,due to people's preoccupation with the World Cup 2010 games, Al Zoghbi was one of the many singers in the Middle East who decided to postpone the release of their albums that summer until the end of Ramadan later in the year.
Nawal is the oldest of her three brothers and one sister. She got married in 1990 to Elie Deeb, a Lebanese music manager. They had three children: a daughter Tia (b. 1998), and twin sons Georgy and Joey (b. 2001). She released a song titled Tia in 1999, which was dedicated to her daughter and her birth. She runs a production company named after her daughter, Tia Productions.
Deeb and Zoghbi legally separated in 2008, Al Zoghbi is currently waiting for the Maronite Catholic Church to recognize her divorce. In late 2009 Al Zoghbi was granted custody of her three children.[14][15]
Nawal has started her career by a patriotic song "Ya Watani ma nsina" dedicated to the Lebanese army. She has also released a song on her own dedicated to Palestine called "Ya Quds" ("O Jerusalem"). She participated in several political singles such as "Ya Omati", "Hikayt Watan", a song with Lebanese singers for the liberation of South Lebanon, and "La Ma Kholsit Le Hkayeh", following the death of Rafik Hariri.
| Year | Title | Album | Language/Dialect |
| 1994 | Ayza El Radd | Ayza El Radd | Egyptian Arabic |
| 1995 | Balaee Fi Zamany | Balaee Fi Zamany | Egyptian Arabic |
| 1995 | Wala Bihemini | Balaee Fi Zamany | Egyptian Arabic |
| 1996 | Meen Habibi Ana | Lebanese Arabic | |
| 1997 | Habeit Ya Leil | Habeit Ya Leil | Egyptian Arabic |
| 1997 | Noss El Alb | Habeit Ya Leil | Lebanese Arabic |
| 1997 | Gharib Al Raai | Habeit Ya Leil | Khaleeji Arabic |
| 1998 | Mandam Aleik | Mandam Aleik | Lebanese Arabic |
| 1998 | Galbi Daq | Mandam Aleik | Lebanese Arabic |
| 1998 | Ala Bali | Mandam Aleik | Lebanese Arabic |
| 1999 | Dalouna | Maloum | Lebanese Arabic |
| 1999 | Maloum | Maloum | Lebanese Arabic |
| 1999 | Tia | Maloum | Lebanese Arabic |
| 2000 | El Layali | El Layali | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2000 | Naseeni Leeh | El Layali | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2001 | Tool Omri | Tool Omri | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2001 | Haseb Nafsak | Tool Omri | Lebanese Arabic |
| 2002 | Elli Tmaneito | Elli Tmaneito | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2003 | Bilbaklak | Elli Tmaneito | Lebanese Arabic |
| 2004 | Bieinak | Eineik Kaddabeen | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2004 | Eineik Kaddabeen | Eineik Kaddabeen | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2005 | Rouhi Ya Rouhi | Yama Alou | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2006 | Shou Akhbarak | Yama Alou | Lebanese Arabic |
| 2006 | Yama Alou | Yama Alou | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2006 | Adi | Yama Alou | Khaleeji Arabic |
| 2007 | Aghla el Habayib | Yama Alou | Lebanese Arabic |
| 2008 | Albi Isa'lo | Khalas Sameht | Lebanese Arabic |
| 2008 | Leih Moushtalak | Khalas Sameht | Egyptian Arabic |
| 2009 | Mona Ainah | Ma'rafsh Leh | Khaleeji Arabic |
| 2011 | Alf We Miyi | Ma'rafsh Leh | Lebanese Arabic |