45 years after his departure, Ghazali still rules – say musicians

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Musicians and singers lauded as a trailblazer late Iraqi singer Nazem al-Ghazali, who died 45 years ago, and agree that he still has his influence over the Iraqi song. “Ghazali remains unarguably one of the most beautiful singers in the history of Iraqi singing. With his style of chagrin and clear utterance of lyrical words, Ghazali was able to perform different ways of Iraqi and Arabian singing skills,” critic Adel al-Hashemi told IraqiNews.com. Ghazali was born in Baghdad’s al-Haydar Khana area in 1921. His father died before he was born and his mother was a blind woman who lived in a very modest room with her sister. He managed to finish his elementary and intermediate stages of education in al-Maamouniya school. Poverty had its toll on a young Ghazali, particularly after his mother died and his maternal aunt, who had only 1.5 Iraqi dinar then as income, supported him. Jamal Abdelaziz, the chief of the Iraqi musicians’ union, told VOI that his generation always liked Ghazali who developed the Iraqi singing style and he is considered to be the first Iraqi singer to make a great breakthrough at the Arab level. “In 1980, when I was in Cairo, I paid visits to many houses in Cairo and nearly all of them had at least one record of Ghazali’s songs. He influenced a generation after generations that many have imitated him as of the 1960s, starting from Abbas al-Basri in 1965 and passing by Fouad Salem, Salah Abdelghafour and then Nagah Abdelghafour, who all pursued Ghazali’s singing style and performance,” said Abdelaziz. Composer Mohsen Farahat told IraqiNews.com that Ghazali’s appearance in the Iraqi singing world helped spread the local Iraqi songs in and outside the country. “Ghazali really deserves the soubriquet ‘The First Ambassador of Iraqi Song’ because he was the first to give local Iraqi songs a new attire and flavor,” said Farahat. AmR (S)   1