Fadel Chaker
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Template:Infobox musical artist 2
Fadl Shaker (Arabic: فضل شاكر) (Fadl Abdulrahman Shaker, born on April 1, 1969 فضل عبدالرحمن شمندر)is a famous Palestinianrefugee singer.
Personal life
Fadl Shaker (Ibn EL Genoob), was born on April 1, 1969 in Saida (Sidon), a city in Southern Lebanon in a Refugee camp for Palestinians. He lives in Saida in Jadet Nabih Berri. He is married to his wife Nadia a fellow Palestinian refugee, and has three children, Mohamed, Alhan & Eno.
Fadl musical talent started early in his age, at the age of 15. Early in his singing career, he performed many original songs by Arab legends like Umm Kulthum (singer), Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid Al Attrach, Mohammed Abdel Wahab and many other famous singers of his generation as well. He had to overcome many obstacles and hardships as a young aspiring singer before achieving fame.
1997 Early Commercial Success
In 1997, he was discovered by an agent from the recording label Stallions Company, and was signed on to produce three albums. This was Fadl's first significant career break.
Fadl released his first album Wallah Zaman in 1998, which had eight original songs, including "Meta Habeby Meta", "Nazra Wah". Some of these songs were composed and written by such known Arab stars like Salah El Sharnoby and Ahmed Sheta.
The second album was Baya'a El Qolob released in 1999, and the title song hit # 1 on all charts in the first week of the album's debut. The song was also very popular on radio stations throughout the Middle East. Due to the overwhelming success and huge sales of the album, Fadl decided to produce two music video clips, the first was for the song "Baya'a El Qolob" and the second was for "Eesheqtak". As a result of his first album's astonishing success, Fadl was catapulted to become one of the top superstars in the Middle East.
2000 - 2002
His third album was El Hob El Adem, released in 2000. It included very famous songs like Ash Men Shafak. This album was also a huge success, just like his previous album. It topped all charts as well. His fourth album Hobak Khayal was released in 2001, and contained 10 songs this time, and was produced by Al Khoyoul Company. It contained songs like Hazzak Ya Qalby, Men Kotr Hoby Feek, and El Maraya.
In 2002, Fadl recorded and released his first duo with the renowned Arab Persian gulf singer Nawal. This duet topped the charts for five months straight, and broke all sales records in the Arab world. It was voted by music critics as the best duo in the history of Persian Gulf music. Its success was also complemented by the release of a hot music video clip, directed by Ahmed El Doghajy.
In the first album, Fadl Shaker composed three of his famous songs (Meta Habeby Meta, Maserak Habeby and Ya Tkon Habeby), and one song in his 2nd album Malet Ana A'azar. He didn't compose any other songs in the albums that followed.
2003 - Present
In 2003, Fadl released to the radio stations his new smash-hit ballad Ya Ghayeb, which was voted the Best song for 2003 by the radio stations. It became a big hit before the album or any music videos were released. The song reached # 1 status on all Arabic stations in the Middle East. Fadl bought all rights of the tune for his song from the Greek composer and singer Sotis Volanis, and the lyrics were written by Prince (Turky Bin Abdel Rahman El Sudairy), who also wrote another song of Fadl's coming album called Dehkat Eldony.
As of 2007, Fadl Shaker is working on a new album composed by himself.
Fadl Shaker was always concerned about singing maqamat, the hardest of Arabic melodies, and he always tried to preserve the true Arabic musical style in all of his songs. His songs are known not to have any western melody influence. Fadl is known for his unique singing style, and as a result, has built a huge fan base throughout the Middle East.
During his musical career, Fadl has won many prestigious music awards in the Middle East, and in just four years (1998 - 2002) he became one of the Middle East greatest music legends. He was nicknamed by his fans as Malek El Romansia or King of Romance.
Fadl Shaker also performed in major Arabic Festivals in many Arab countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and other countries worldwide. He recently performed with other well known Arabic singers, in a big festival in honor of the Intifada.
Fadl enjoys fishing on his boat at the shores of his birth city ( Saida ),and also enjoys most water sports. He loves to play the Piano, and listen to old and modern music with his wife and kids. He's a big fan of sambosas.and enjoys working at his resturant in Saida .