Majida El Roumi

Her father was born in Tyre in 1919 but later moved to Haifa, Palestine, at the age of two with his whole family to avoid the hardships of World War I.

Kfarshima is also home to many Lebanese singers, musicians and poets like Philimon Wehbe, Melhem Barakat and Issam Rajji.

The El Roumi residence was a meeting place for many cultural figures as he worked with many singers.

He is accredited with having discovered many well-known artists, mainly the Lebanese star Fairuz.

Majida was featured in her school's stage in Saint Coeur, Al Hadath.

At the age of 14, she accompanied her father in an interview on Télé Liban with Najib Hankash, where she first performed songs for Umm Kulthum and Fairuz.

At the age of 16, Raymond Safadi, Majida's cousin, noticed her musical capabilities and thought that she should pursue singing as a profession.

Majida El Roumi Baradhy (ماجدة الرومي برادعي; born 13 December 1956) is a Lebanese soprano singer and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.

Majida El Roumi Al Baradhy was born on 13 December 1956 in Kfarshima.

in an interview، Majida stated that her family traces its roots to Egypt; and that her grandfather was a tailor in Egypt.

Her father, Halim El Roumi, was a Melkite Christian born in Tyre, South Lebanon, and her mother was also Egyptian.

She participated in the talent show Studio El Fan in 1974 after she sneaked out of the house with her brother and her cousins.

For her first appearance on television, she performed for Layla Murad and Asmahan and won the gold medal for oriental singing.

Her success prompted her father to change his mind and give her his blessings to pursue in singing as long as she continued her higher education.

Later on, Majida graduated from the Lebanese University after receiving her BA in Arabic Literature.

In 1974, she was a contestant in the talent show Studio El Fan on Télé Liban and performed songs by Asmahan and Layla Murad at the age of 16.

In 1975, Majida released her first single "Am Behlamak" (I'm dreaming of you, Lebanon) with collaboration with the Lebanese poet Said Akl and musician Elias Rahbani.

The song, released at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in April 1975, was very popular.

After releasing her first album Wadaa (Farewell) in 1976, Majida got the attention of Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine.

She starred alongside Hisham Saleem in her first and only movie Awdat Al Ibn Al Dal (The Return of the Prodigal Son) and performed three of the soundtrack's songs.

She married Antoine Dafone, and after years of marriage she separated from him following rumors about his relationship with a young singer.

She has two daughters, Hala and Noor.

When she performed at Hunter College in May 1989 accompanied by a 19-piece orchestra, music reviewer Peter Watrous said: "she wandered between near-European pop and Middle Eastern pop".

In 2001, Majida El Roumi released a single titled "Nachid El Hobb" (The Hymn of Love) with lyrics from Dam'a wa Ibtisama (A Tear and A Smile) written by the Lebanese artist and writer Gibran Khalil Gibran.

El Roumi chose this text after the UN ceremony in 2001, when she was named Goodwill Ambassador, and declared it to be the theme message for her mission of peace around the world.

In 2001, Majida's sister Maha had to be transported to the US for better medical care, as she was suffering from cancer.

Majida and Youssou N'Dour have already performed it during the VIe annual Jeux de la Francophonie in 2009, hosted in Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Beirut accompanied with more than 150 dancers.

Majida wrote the lyrics of "Bokra" (Tomorrow), a charity opérette that was released on 11 November 2011.

The single's proceeds were donated to various charitable initiatives with arts and culture programs aiming to raise funds for education projects in the Arab World.

In an interview with Rima Maktabi in the CNN program – Inside the Middle East, Majida told the story of the new song which was produced by Quincy Jones and RedOne.

In a surprising and unexpected decision, Majida announced that she had pulled herself out of the project.

She said that the producer, Quincy Jones, did not meet her conditions and the team supervising and overlooking the project was not professional.

Majida already put her voice on the operate, but when they asked her to record again in Qatar, she announced her withdrawal and waived her authorship rights when she backed out of the project.

Majida released her new album "Ghazal" on 22 June 2012 having worked on it for 6 years with many composers and poets.

"Biladi Ana" (My Country) is a duet between Majida and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour.

Arabic lyrics are taken from Cadmus, Said Akl's theater play and French lyrics are freely inspired from the same theater play by Lebanese novelist Alexandre Najjar.

Musical composition is accomplished by Joseph Khalifeh and Jean-Marie Riachi.

This song describes Lebanon "the peace", "the beauty", "the creativity" and encourages fraternity, unity between people worldwide and calls for loving each other by surpassing all human differences.

Nour Men Nour (A Light from Light) is the fourteenth studio album by Majida released in December 2013 produced by V. Productions.

The album explores 12 Christmas carols exploring a wide set of musical genres including classical music and Opera preserving the same musical track that Majida had sung over the years.