Warda

b. Warda Flouki, c.1939, Paris, France. The daughter of a Lebanese mother and an Algerian father, Warda grew up in Paris' Quartier Latin where her father owned Le TAM TAM, a nightclub specializing in Arabic music. From childhood Warda sang at the club, as a result of which, at the age of 14, she was invited to sing on a local radio programme for Arabic children. In 1956 the whole family was deported from France because of the fathers support of the Algerian Liberation Movement. They settled in Beirut, where Warda soon found work singing at Tanyos, a famous local nightspot. She...