Faisal Alawi

Faisal Alawi (1949 – February 7, 2010) was a Yemeni singer and oudist from Lahej, considered a pioneer of Lahiji music. He was famous for playing the oud, and his fame spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf countries.

Biography

Faisal was born in 1949 in the village of Al-Shaq'a, Tuban, in the former Lahij sultanate. His father, Alawi Saad Al-Fatahi, was an artist, and his grandfather was a jurist and imam of a mosque. Faisal's first artistic work was in 1958, with his famous song "I Ask You with Love, O Beautiful Fatin" composed by Salih Nasser Kurd and lyrics by Ahmad Abbadi Hussein.

He studied at Al-Mahsaniya School, where all the sultans and artists studied, including Prince Ahmad Fadl Al-Qamandan, artist Fadl Muhammad Al-Lahiji, and poet Abdullah Hadi Sabit. Faisal Alawi became very famous in Lahij Governorate, to the extent that his name became synonymous with it.