Ahlan أهــْــلاً, Arabic lovers! In today’s post, I am going to give you a small synopsis about someone who left our world some days ago. “Miracle of the Egyptian Cinema مــعــجــزة الــســيــنــمــا الــمــصــريــة” was her nickname. Perouz Artin Kalfayan بــيــروز أرتــن كــالــفــايــان is her name as she was born to an Armenian family from Aleppo حــَــلــَــبْ, Syria. She is best known in Egypt by her professional name Fayrouz فــيــروز that was chosen to her by the famous Egyptian actor Anwar Wagdi أنــوروجــدي changing the first letter of her name. Fayrouz was a talented actress, dancer, singer and film entertainer.
“Little Fayrouz فــيــروز الــصــغــيــرة” also a nickname of hers, was born in Cairo on the 15th. March, 1943. The Egyptian-Syrian comedian Elias Mo’addib إلــيــاس مــؤدب was a friend of her father. He was the first to notice her talent مــوهــبــة. He used to play the violin الــكــَــمــَــان in Fayrouz’s house and she used to dance in front of the family. Mo’addib wrote and composed a monologue مــونــولــوج for Fayrouz and took her to sing it in one concert. Everyone admired her. He then took her to a competition in a famous Cairo night club. She attracted the attention of all the cinema-makers and producers. Mo’addib chose the famous actor and producer Anwar Wagdi to sign with Fayrouz. Wagdi gave her some brief training and directly introduced her to the cinema. Fayoruz was just seven years old when she appeared in her first film “Yasmine (Jasmin) يــاســمــيــن” in 1950. The film was a success so it was followed by another “Fayrouz Ha’nim (Madam Fayrouz) فــيــروزهــانــِــم” in 1951. In 1952, she starred the film “Sourat Al-Zifaf (The Wedding Photo) صــورة الــزفــاف“. At the age of ten, came the most famous film for Fayrouz and Anwar Wagdi; “Dahab دهــب” that appeared in 1953 and became one of the Egyptian cinema classics.
In the same year, Fayrouz separated from Anwar Wagdi as her father refused to renew the contract with him. She was already famous, so her father decided to be her producer instead of Anwar Wagdi. She appeared with her own sisters Nelli نــيــلــلــي and Mirvat مــيــرفــت in “Al-Hirman (The deprivation) الــحـِــرمـَــان” that was the first of her father’s productions. Her sister Nelli became famous afterwards and is still in the field up till now.
For three years, Fayrouz didn’t produce any films. Then, she came back to show up in a number of dramatic works. Her works were not much as successful as her previous works, so she decided to retire at the age of sixteen. Although she produced only ten films during her short artistic career, she is still remembered as the “Miracle of the Egyptian Cinema”. In 2001, she was honored with “Lifetime Achievement Award” in Cairo Film Festival.
Fayrouz was married to the Egyptian comedian Badreddine Gamgoum بــدر الــديــن جــمــجــوم and had two children; “Ayman أيــمــن and Eman إيــمــان“. Fayrouz died on the 30th. January, 2016.
Well, I was born near the city of Rasheed or Rosetta, Egypt. Yes, the city where the Rosetta Stone was discovered. It is a small city on the north of Egypt where the Nile meets the Mediterranean. I am a Teacher of EFL.
