Mohammed Abdu

Mohammed Abdu (Arabic: محمد عبده; born June 12, 1949) is a Saudi singer.^[1] He has been described as the "Artist of the Arabs".^[2]

Mohammed Abdu was born on June 12, 1949^[3][4] in Al Shuqaiq, Jazan. His father, Abdu Othman Al-A'asiri, was a poor fisherman in Tihamah who had six children with his wife, Salma Nasr-Allah. At the time, Saudi Arabia at the time was in the midst of a smallpox epidemic, and almost all of their children died, including a three-year-old son named Mohammed. The couple vowed to name their next child in memory of him. The family then moved to Jeddah. His father left his job as a fisherman and became a bricklayer. In 1953, Abdu Othman Al-A'asiri left the family after he fell ill, dying before Mohammed took his first steps.

As a three-year-old orphan, Mohammed went with his mother and siblings to an orphanage house called Ribat Abu-Zinadah, a local Yemenite hostel for orphaned families. With the financial aid of the soon-to-be crown prince Faisal, the children were accepted. Mohammed Abdu commented on the home, saying "I learned how to live and depend on myself." After his graduation from sixth-grade, he started taking multiple menial jobs until he joined a vocational institute to make a living for himself and his family. He eventually moved back with his family and bought a new house with the little money he was given as a graduation gift.

In 1989, his mother died, and Mohammed stopped singing altogether. It was "one of the saddest moments in my entire life," as he described. She was the love of his life and the person Abdu sang for. Abdu was so saddened by her death that he decided not to release any more albums from 1989 until 1997.

Finally, in 1997, he sang at a National Day celebration to an audience amazed at how mature his voice had become; his voice was marvelous and more tact. That year, he went to London to sing at three concerts with Warda Al-Jazairia and released five albums in the following three months.

The next year saw his official comeback when he sang at the Abha Music Festival in 1998, releasing another three albums concurrently. Follow-up concerts in Qatar, Dubai, and Cairo were the much-needed efforts to put him back on the Arab musical map.^[5]

Mohammed Abdu comenzó su carrera musical a principios de la década de 1960. Se inició en el mundo del canto a una edad temprana, durante su estancia en el Instituto Industrial de Jeddah, donde se graduó en 1963.

La música de Abdu se basaba en el talento atemporal de la generación anterior y en canciones de profunda tradición. Se le atribuye la preservación de muchas canciones llamadas mawrouth (canciones heredadas) sin modificarlas significativamente. Sus álbumes Chaabyat, que lanzó a través de su sello "Voice of Al-Jazeerah" en la década de 1990, fueron su intento de documentar esa antigua tradición. En estas jalsat (sesiones musicales) era donde mejor se lucía su talento; el oud era el instrumento con el que más conectaba; solo algunos músicos han demostrado esta conexión, entre ellos: Farid al-Atrash , Baligh Hamdi y Talal Maddah . Abdu incluso cantó una de las composiciones de Baligh, "Sert Al-Houb" (Historia de amor), para Umm Kulthum en su 69 cumpleaños.

Sus primeras canciones eran cánticos religiosos y anasheed (canciones islámicas que se permite cantar), además de recitar el Corán después de la oración o en las celebraciones de su escuela. Estudiantes y profesores se reunían a su alrededor para escucharlo cantar durante los recreos. Temiendo que abandonara la escuela para dedicarse a la música, su madre le pidió que cantara solo por invitación, cuando estuvieran presentes los cantantes mayores, para que su hijo siguiera siendo alumno de estos consagrados. Su voz y su habilidad con el oud superaron este temor cuando dejó a todos boquiabiertos tras su interpretación de un antiguo adwar yemení (canciones antiguas de Maqama conocidas ), famoso por su casi imposible dominio para un joven cantante. Estas canciones eran antiguos cánticos que los cantantes yemeníes interpretaban y con los que competían entre sí para alcanzar el tarab . ^{[ 6 ]}

El 30 de septiembre de 2021, Abdu actuó en la ceremonia de apertura de la Expo 2020 en Dubái , donde cantó " If You're Out There? " con Angélique Kidjo . ^{[ 7 ]}

Desde 1983 hasta 2009, Mohammed estuvo casado con Umm Noura, con quien tuvo siete hijos.

En 2011, contrajo segundas nupcias con una mujer francesa de origen argelino tras una estancia en Francia por motivos de salud. De este nuevo matrimonio tiene dos hijos: un varón, Khalid, su octavo hijo, y en 2018, una hija llamada Anoud.

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• Contenido multimedia relacionado con Mohammed Abdu en Wikimedia Commons