Discovering Mounir Mourad

Mounir Mourad

In February 2023 I was adding composer names to a spreadsheet of songs that were part of a song workshops series I was putting together for spring and summer. There was only one name I had never heard, that of Mounir Mourad (1922-1981), the composer of Bahlam Beek. I made a mental note to research him and didn’t think about it again until I was preparing for that week’s workshop. When I started looking into him, I was so glad to have had the opportunity to find out more about his life and work.

Zaki Mourad

As it turns out he was born into a well-known, artistic family that was part of the Egyptian Jewish community, the youngest of five children. His father, Zaki Mourad, was a famous singer, musician and composer of his time (1920’s-30’s), and his sister, Leila Mourad, became a real singing superstar and movie star in the 30’s and 40’s. Leila was already becoming successful as Mourad was growing up (Interestingly, she made her first stage appearance at nine years old, at Salat Badi’a, the famous Cairo music hall founded by Badi’a Masabni- Leila’s father was both her manager and also sang with Badi’a).

Leila Mourad

Mounir went into the film industry at a very young age and eventually become well-known as a composer of film songs, writing for singers like Shadia, Sabah, Sherifa Fadel, Abdel Halim Hafez, and others. He was known as a singer and an actor, though he only acted in three films, and he also composed dance music. In the course of learning about him, I stumbled upon a video clip that revealed him as quite the dancer and physical comedian himself.

The clip is from the 1953 film Ana wa Habibi, which he starred in with Egyptian screen legend Shadia. In the film, he does a song and dance number (starts at 1:45) which features him gently mocking some of the most popular singers of the time, starting with Mohamed Abdel Wahab (even including the hankie and throat clearing!), Leila Mourad, Mohamed Fawzy, Mohamed Abdel Mottaleb, and Farid El Atrache, all very popular at the time. Of course, this is more entertaining if you do not understand Egyptian Arabic or  know the vocal styles of the singers he is imitating. But even without understanding the language, the humor comes across just through his dancing and expressions- he moves like a cross between Gene Kelly and Charlie Chaplin.

I am always, always learning something new with any workshop that I prepare. But learning about Mounir Mourad was like opening a completely new door- although I was already familiar with his sister. The few bits of information I am sharing here are just scratching the surface so I will continue to see what I can learn about this legendary Egyptian musical family.