SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Lebanon this week mourned the passing of one of its most beloved artists. Musician and playwright Ziad Rahbani died a week ago. NPR's Michael Levitt has this remembrance.
(SOUNDBITE OF ZIAD RAHBANI SONG, "ANA MOUSH KAFER")
MICHAEL LEVITT, BYLINE: In the song "Ana Moush Kafer," you can hear a lot of what makes Ziad Rahbani a one-of-a-kind artist.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANA MOUSH KAFER")
ZIAD RAHBANI: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: "I am not a heathen," he sings. "Hunger is a heathen. Disease is a heathen. Poverty is a heathen. Shame is a heathen."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANA MOUSH KAFER")
RAHBANI: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: When the song was released in 1985, Lebanon had already endured a decade of brutal civil war. Rahbani's lyrics jab at religious and political leaders who fractured the country along sectarian lines. "Who are you to call me a heathen?" He sings. "You're the king of heathens."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANA MOUSH KAFER")
RAHBANI: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: It was this sort of social commentary that made Rahbani such a beloved and influential voice in Lebanon, says Danny Hajjar, editor in chief of Rolling Stone MENA, which covers music in the Middle East.
DANNY HAJJAR: Ziad Rahbani was so uniquely Lebanese and so entrenched in the fabric of Lebanon, both musically and politically.
LEVITT: And it helped that he was born in 1956 to a family that was already part of the cultural fabric in Lebanon.
HAJJAR: This is someone that came from a family of geniuses, and he himself was no exception to that.
LEVITT: His father was renowned composer Assi Rahbani, who worked closely with his mother, one of the most beloved singers in the Arab world, Fairuz.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAADAK ALA BALY")
FAIRUZ: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: By age 7, he began following his parents' footsteps and started composing his own music.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ON REFLECTIONS")
RAHBANI: (Through interpreter) I started playing some tunes on the piano, and my father would notice them and write them into music sheets. And he would ask me, where did you hear this? And I would say, in my head.
LEVITT: In a documentary about his career titled "On Reflections," Rahbani said his early penchant for music and art was encouraged by his family. But as he grew older, he became increasingly uncomfortable with their music. He felt it painted an idyllic image of Lebanon that ducked real-life issues. He described it as folklore.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ON REFLECTIONS")
RAHBANI: (Through interpreter) There is criticism that my family and those who followed their example were creating folklore. There were many who did this, but my family - they were at the forefront.
PAUL SALEM: He was very much a leftist, a communist, and that shows in his alignment with the little guy, the poor person, and that's in his music, that's in everything he said.
LEVITT: Paul Salem is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. He's also a musician who knew and worked with Rahbani. Salem says a key turning point came at age 19 when the civil war broke out in 1975.
SALEM: The war quickly descended into a simple sectarian, mainly Muslim Christian kind of bloodletting, and that kind of moral collapse is something that also Ziad commented on and sort of was a big critic of.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ABU ALI")
RAHBANI: (Vocalizing).
LEVITT: Rahbani's viewpoints could be strident. He was a supporter of the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah and expressed support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad during Syria's civil war. But even though he could sometimes stir controversy, his art was never overshadowed, says Paul Salem.
SALEM: He had his politics. Many people were aware of it, but that's not what he was to people or why they cared about him.
LEVITT: Rahbani's political development came as he discovered different musical styles from around the world, like samba and jazz. This all became apparent in his theatrical works, like the 1978 musical "Bennesbeh Labokra Chou," which translates to "What About Tomorrow."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OGHNEYAT AL BOSTAH")
RAHBANI: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: It tells the story of a bartender and his wife who struggle to run their business in a deeply troubled country.
SALEM: That was his early period, which is really when everybody got to know him, fell in love with him, identify with him strongly.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OGHNEYAT AL BOSTAH")
RAHBANI: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: However, alongside Rahbani's solo work as a musician and playwright, he was also fostering a creative relationship with his most important collaborator - his mother, Fairuz.
DIMA ISSA: You know, Fairuz is someone that is untouchable. She's this kind of, like, icon. You know, he transformed her.
LEVITT: Dima Issa is an assistant professor at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. She's written extensively about Fairuz's life and career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KIFAK INTA")
FAIRUZ: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: This transformation for mother and son can be heard in one of their most beloved hits, "Kifak Inta." Fairuz sings to an ex-lover, longing to go back to a time before they parted ways.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KIFAK INTA")
FAIRUZ: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: In working with her son, Fairuz showed audiences a much more raw side of herself.
ISSA: It really brought out this kind of, like, human aspect of Fairuz herself, you know? And it's not just about, you know, her positioning as just kind of, like, this figure of, you know, Arabness or Lebaneseness or nationhood. You know, it was a very nice way to bring Fairuz back to Earth.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KIFAK INTA")
FAIRUZ: (Singing in non-English language).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BALA WALA CHI")
RAHBANI: (Singing in non-English language).
LEVITT: This week, Fairuz made a rare public appearance at her son's funeral. Ziad Rahbani was 69 years old. Michael Levitt, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BALA WALA CHI")
RAHBANI: (Singing in non-English language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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