I love Shadi Al-Khaleej!

George Bernard Shaw once wrote a book titled ‘I love Wagner’, which was translated into Arabic by Tharwat Okasha, to express his admiration of the music virtuoso Wagner, who lived over a century before his time. So what about someone I have accompanied in most stages of his career and even years earlier, as his late brother Yousef use to be my friend in the late 1950s?

By the beginning of the 1960s, Kuwait saw its breakthrough art period - the era was marked by Shadi Al-Khaleej songs, Ahmad Al-Adwani’s lyrics and Ahmad Baqer’s tunes, who were all patronized by the head of the social affairs department at the time, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and his undersecretary Hamad Al-Rujaib. So, how can I not love Shadi Al-Khaleej?!

I once wrote an article about Shadi Al-Khaleej and how he managed to make a substantial shift in Kuwait’s arts history when he used theatrical lyrics for the first time in the region, singing the ‘Sinbad Story’ of a mariner’s diary, which was written by poet Mohammed Al-Fayez and was warmly accepted in the Arab world. Shadi Al-Khaleej’s singing Al-Fayez’s words gave them life.

I witnessed Shadi Al-Khaleej’s years of studying music in Cairo in the 1960s. He was an example of Kuwait’s new artists following the traditional from of using some simple drums, an oud and a single violin. This turned into a complete orchestra, with Shadi including scores of academic players and they all marveled in playing and singing songs like ‘Holo,’‘Ya Sidrat Al-Oshaq,’‘Hai Hal’ and many others.

Personally speaking, I witnessed Shadi AlKhaleej’s first true love in Cairo and then his marriage to his classmate, who still has a wonderful smile on her face and a kind heart like all Kuwaiti mothers. Um Ali was his supporter all his life. We used to meet with some friends, including his lifelong friend Mohammad Al-Sanoussi, once or twice a week. I wish Shadi was also an actor, because he has a great sense of humor and one would be damned if he decides making fun of him.

I was moved to tears by the devotion and dedication of His Highness the Amir and the people of Kuwait on welcoming back Shadi Al-Khaleej. Dear Abu Ali, you have given so much to your country, and please accept this humble greeting from your brother Najem. — Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Jarida

He was an example of Kuwait’s new artists following the traditional from of using some simple drums, an oud and a single violin