Diana Haddad Lebanese Singer With 11.8M Instagram Followers

Early life

Diana Haddad was born on 1 October 1976 in the Lebanese village of Bsalim. The Lebanese Civil War had begun the year before her birth, and her family spent much of her early life in the more stable Gulf states. Her parents moved to Kuwait in the 1970s, and she was educated at the national school in the Fahaheel district. She has four siblings and is the third in age. Her musical talent was noticed when she was eight, and in 1988 she performed at several Kuwaiti national events.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the family returned to Lebanon. She then lived between Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. She never took a university degree, although she has said she was interested in archaeology; in 1992 she earned a diploma in computer science. She went on to join the singing competition Studio El Fan in Beirut, which was broadcast nationally on LBC in 1993, and the exposure made her known at sixteen.

Career

Haddad is a Lebanese singer who also holds Emirati citizenship and is based in the United Arab Emirates. Her competition entry, "Tayr El Yammameh", a traditional Lebanese folk song, later appeared on her debut album, Saken (1996). Early on she was known for a Bedouin style that blends in modern beats and instruments, and critics compared her to the Lebanese singer Samira Tawfik. Her second album, Ahl Al Esheg (1997), produced the song of the same name, which is regarded as one of her signature numbers and is still performed at most of her concerts.

The single "Ammanih" brought her biggest breakthrough, helped by its use of the Turkish "Amanes" style within a Bedouin song and by a music video shot in Turkey. Her albums to that point had used only Lebanese and Bedouin dialects; Yammaya moved beyond them, with songs in Khaliji, Iraqi and Egyptian dialects, and "Emshi Wara Kidbohom" was her first single in a dialect other than Lebanese or Bedouin. The video for "Yammaya" was filmed at the Giza pyramid complex. Shater followed in 1999, Jarh Al Habib in 2000, including a duet with the Egyptian folk singer Mohammed Al Azabi, and Akhbar Helwa in 2001.

Her label since her debut, Stallions Records, was sold to Rotana Records in 2002. That year she signed with the Egyptian label Alam El Phan and released Law Yesaloni, her first full album in Khaliji dialects, which includes a duet with the Emirati singer Eida Al Menhali. Awel Marrah followed in 2004. For Diana 2006 she left Alam El Phan, and the album came out through her then-husband's company, with distribution deals across the Arab world; its lead single, "Mas & Louly", featured the Algerian raï musician Cheb Khaled and became an instant hit. Men Diana Illa (2008) was her second Khaliji album.

After her separation in 2009, she toured in France, Morocco, Algeria and Lebanon. At a festival in Morocco she drew more than 150,000 people, a record for the event, and in Lebanon she gave her first concert in her family's hometown, Maghdouche, before an audience of more than 6,000. Bent Osol (2011) was funded independently and distributed across the Arab world through Platinum Records.

In late 2013 she signed with Rotana. Her first album for the label, Ya Bashar, appeared in December 2014, and it included her debut as a music producer on the track "Farhet Qalbi". Her 2013 single "La Fiesta" was a hit in Morocco, and "Ela Hona", released in 2017 with a video shot in Tbilisi, Georgia, became a sleeper hit after Iraqi artists covered it, passing 100 million views on YouTube by early 2020.

Recognition

In June 2015 Haddad received an honorary award for her contribution to music at the Murex D'Or ceremony in Lebanon.

Public roles

Haddad has taken part in several charitable and public-interest projects. In 2000 she released a song dedicated to the Palestinian cause and cancelled a series of scheduled concerts in the United States in solidarity. In 2003 she recorded the single "Bi Edak El Qarar" for a campaign against drugs and smoking in the United Arab Emirates. In 2007 she joined a charity concert in the Emirates whose proceeds went to Lebanese children, and in 2008 the Al Rashid Care Center honoured her for her work with children with disabilities.

Personal life

Haddad married the Emirati music director and businessman Suhail Al-Abdul in the 1990s, and he directed many of her early music videos. They have two daughters. The couple divorced in August 2009 and agreed to share custody. She has lived in Dubai since her marriage and visits Lebanon, where she owns property.