About Kadim Alsaher

Kadim Al Sahir is an Iraqi singer, composer, and songwriter. He has been dubbed “The Caesar of Arabic Songs” and Iraq’s Ambassador to the world. Kadim Al Sahir has established himself as one of the most successful singers in the history of the Arab World with over 100 million albums sold and the highest-attended Arabic concert of all time. His music varies in style ranging from romantic ballads to more political work, and from pop to classical Arab music. More than half-a million people from 165 countries voted his composition “Ana Wa Laila” as the sixth in the world’s top 10 most popular songs of all time. He performs with an orchestra of twenty to thirty musicians on Arabic percussion, oud, qanun, nay, and a full complement of strings. While some of his work makes use of electronic musical sounds, he avoids the use of synthesizers to imitate acoustic instruments and his work frequently features Iraqi folk instruments, rhythms and melodies. Before he entered the Baghdad Academy of Music, Kadim’s self-education had given him a firm grounding in the rich repertoire of mid-twentieth-century Arab vocal music. He became deeply familiar with both classical Arab music and the Iraqi maqam repertoire. One of his first videos was made in collaboration with a television director that was also his friend. The song in question, “Ladghat El Hayya”, was broadcast on Iraqi television in 1987, one year before the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The song was the source of a major controversy due to sensitivities that were common during that era. Iraqi television officials asked him to either change the lyrics or have it banned but his refusal to comply only increased the popularity of the song. Kadim transferred his base of operations to Jordan in 1991, due to the Persian Gulf War. He performed some of his most successful concerts in Jerash and produced two successful albums at Sameer Baghdadi’s Studios in Amman, Jordan. He later moved to Lebanon, where he met the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani and formed a partnership with him. Nizar Qabbani, who previously wrote lyrics for super-stars like Abdel Halim Hafez and Najat Al Saghira, also wrote the lyrics to more than 30 of Kadim’s songs. In addition to Qabbani’s poems, Kadim sang both political and romantic songs for Iraq and Baghdad, highlighting the feelings and tragedies of Iraqi citizens. Kadim continued touring and releasing albums even after becoming the biggest name in Middle Eastern music. He is an artist whose ballads only grew bigger and more romantic even when their subject matter could potentially hurt his popularity.