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The Rahbany Brothers

The Rahbany Brothers wanted to create music of pure Lebanese identity. They started from zero. They returned to the past, to the folklore, took some songs and rearranged their music without changing the lyrics. In the next stage, they started mixing the folkloric tunes with each other. They would mix “Abu Elzeluf”, “Dalouna” and “Ala elmani” together and write the lyrics themselves. This caused some confusion among the listeners who figured the words to be from the folklore when, in fact, they were of the brothers doing.

This was followed by “Aghani Shaa’biyya” such as “Itab”, “Raja’a” and other songs of the Lebanese “tarab” variety. Their identity as Lebanese musicians was being slowly formed and confirmed.

In 1955, after Assi and Fayrouz were married, they all traveled to Egypt to learn about the state of the arts there and met with Ahmad Sai’d, then, the manager of Sawt El Arab. They offered to produce a work for the Palestinian cause. He asked them to fly to Gazza to listen to the music there but they declined because they both feared flying.