Fahd Ballan

Fahd Ballan (Arabic: فهد بلان‎) (1933–1997, Suwayda) was a popular Syrian Druze singer and actor. Like most of his generation of artists who started their show business careers in the early sixties he was exposed to a world of influences of those decades of music glory. His voice and looks made him a symbol of masculinity and won him many acting roles in his youth.

Fahd Ballan traveled to Egypt and worked with Farid al-Atrash. He married actress Mariam Fakhr Eddin and had an acting career. At least one of his tracks (Ma Aqdarshi Ala Kidah ) is done in Egyptian dialect. Most of his songs are performed in a Hourani dialect typical of Southern Syria and Northern Jordan. One track is done in formal Arabic (Jassa El Tabibo Liya Nabadhi). Fahd Ballan had an amazingly strong and beautiful voice that used to shadow the soundtrack music. Many people think some of his songs including "Larchab Haddak Yal Motor" and "Irkibna 3al Houssan" constitute the basis for the type of Arabic music that was later known as "songs from the mounts" (Arabic: الأغنية الجبلية‎). Most of his popular songs can be found on YouTube.

References

Lyrics from of his very popular songs. يا طير ان لروح دقدق على كل باب سلم عليهم بالصبح وغياب ‏ ان شافك وليف الروح قله انا المجروح ‏ قله وليف بالروح منصاب

يوم على يوم لو طالت الفرقه ما انسيت ان يوم ما انسيت انا الرفقه

عالبال بعدك يا سهل حوران ‏ شرشف قصب ومطرز بنيسان ‏ عرسك صبايا ولمتك خلان‏ واني غريب اسأل عن الرفقه

يحرم علي بدلك بالغير ريحه هلي منه يا سهل الخير ‏ بالله لو رحت المسا يا طير‏ مسي عليهم طالت الفرقه

Bibliography

Zuhur, Sherifa (2000) Asmahan's secrets: woman, war and song, University of Texas Press