Warda Al-Jazairia

Warda Ftouki, better known as Warda (Arabic: وردة), or Warda Al-Jazairia (Arabic: وردة الجزائرية, "Warda the Algerian"), was an Algerian singer. Born on July 22, 1939 in Paris to an Algerian father and a Lebanese mother, she died on May 17, 2012 in Cairo, Egypt. Warda was born in Paris to an Algerian father, Mohammed Ftouki, originally from Souk Ahras, and a Lebanese mother. She began singing during the 1950s in her father's establishment, Tam-Tam, in the Latin Quarter in Paris. At 11, she sang in host Ahmed Hachlaf's show broadcast on Paris Inter. She recorded her first album with Pathé-Marconi. In 1956, weapons intended for the FLN were discovered by the police in his father's cabaret. The establishment is closed and the family deported to Lebanon. In 1959 she met the composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab, who taught her classical singing and adapted Bi-Omri Kullo Habbitak for her. Gamal Abdel Nasser asked him to perform Al Watan Al Akbar, written for a pan-Arab opera. Director Helmi Rafla signed her to a contract, and she pursued a musical and film career in Egypt.