Assi Rahbani

In addition to having a working partnership with the singer Fairuz that lasted many decades, Assi Rahbani was also her husband. The two were married in 1954 and had one son and a daughter together.

On Sept 22, 1972, Rahbani suffered a brain hemorrhage and underwent three surgeries to save his life. Although the hemorrhage was halted, his strenuous job took its toll on his mental health, as well as his marriage, began to deteriorate.

In 1979 Fairuz and the Rahbani brothers dissolved their partnership, and Fairuz and Assi separated. After parting ways the ‘Rahbani Brothers’ continued their unique musical work with other performing artists.

Assi Rahbani was born on May 4, 1923, in Antelias, Lebanon. Together with his younger brother Mansour, he created the musical group the ‘Rahbani Brothers’.

Rahbani began his career in music working for ‘Lebanese Radio’ and later for ‘Near East Radio’. It was there that he first met a singer named Nouhad Haddad, who at the time was a member of the radio station's chorus but would go on to be known as the singer Fairuz.

In 1951, Nouhad was picked out of the chorus by the musical director of the station, and Rahbani composed a song for her to sing. After their first recording session he was asked to compose several other songs for her. With the help of Rahbani's brother the trio produced over 50 songs for the station.

In 1956 during the ‘Suez Crisis’ the trio left the ‘Near East Radio’ station and began to write and record songs independently. Assi and Mansour both composed songs and lyrics together, and the trio collaborated with other artists and they began to grow steadily in popularity.

The ‘Rahbani Trio’ performed at the ‘Baalbeck International Festival’, in 1957, a cultural musical event held in the ‘Roman Acropolis’. It was the first time that local artists had appeared in the international festival.

Together the ‘Rahbani Brothers’ composed plays, musicals and theater productions while continuing to broadcast their music through radio and TV channels. Most of these plays were based around simple patriotic themes designed to appeal to the Lebanese public, and featured nostalgic village life and the innocence of young love and growing up.

Assi Rahbani helped to create a musical theater style that is still considered in many ways unique. His operatic and poetic productions focused on history and folklore as well as socio-political issues and the future of his people and country.

The ‘Rahbani Singing Theatre’ toured worldwide in many countries and helped to introduce a new generation of Arabian singers and musicians to the world. Their repertoire is featured in the theater curriculums of many famous universities including Harvard and Oxford.