Early life

Majida El Roumi Al Baradhy was born on 13 December 1956 and descends from the Melkite Christian "Al Baradhy" family from Tyre, South Lebanon. She is the daughter of the Lebanese musician Halim El Roumi, born in Tyre in 1919 and moved to Haifa, Palestine at the age of two with his whole family to avoid the hardships of World War I.When Halim moved to Egypt to follow his musical career; he met her mother, Marie Loutfy, and they got married in Port Said; and then had three girls Maha, Mona, Majida and a boy Awad. The whole family moved from Egypt to Lebanon and settled in Kfarshima, which is part of Greater Beirut when Majida was at the age of 6 as she grew up in an artistic environment and family of artists. Kfarshima is also home to many Lebanese singers, musicians and poets like Philimon Wehbe, Melhem Barakat and Issam Rajji.The residence of Halim El Roumi was a meeting place for many cultural figures as he worked with many singers with mentioning his discovery to many well-known artists, mainly the Lebanese star Fairuz.

She was featured in her school's stage in Saint Coeur, Al Hadath.t the age of 14 she accompanied her father in an interview on Télé Liban with Najib Hankash when she first performed songs for Umm Kulthum and Fairuz. At the age of 16, Raymond Safadi, Majida's cousin, noticed her musical capabilities and thought that she should pursue singing as a profession. She participated in the talent show Studio El Fan in 1974 after she sneaked out of the house with her brother and her cousins. From her first appearance on television, she performed for Layla Murad and Asmahan and won the gold medal for oriental singing.

Her success prompted her father to change his mind and give her his blessings to pursue in singing as long as she continues her higher education. Later on, Majida graduated from the Lebanese University after receiving her BA in Arabic Literature. In 1975, Majida released her first single "Am Behlamak" (Im dreaming of you, Lebanon) with collaboration with Lebanese poet Said Akl and musician Elias Rahbani. The song was liked in Lebanon when it was released at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in April 1975.

After releasing her first album Wadaa (Farewell) in 1976, Majida got the attention of Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine. She starred alongside Hisham Saleem in her first and only movie Awdat Al Ibn Al Dal (The Return of the Prodigal Son) and performed three songs on the soundtrack for it.

Musical career

1980s–1990s

When she performed at Hunter College in May 1989 accompanied by a 19-piece orchestra, music reviewer Peter Watrous said: "she wandered between near-European pop and Middle Eastern pop". 2001–2004

In 2001, Majida El Roumi released a single titled "Nachid El Hobb" (The Hymn Of Love) with lyrics from Dam'a wa Ibtisama (A Tear and A Smile) written by the Lebanese artist and writer Gibran Khalil Gibran. El Roumi chose this text after the UN ceremony in 2001, when she was named Goodwill Ambassador, and declared it to be the theme message for her mission of peace around the world. 2001 was also the year Majida's sister Maha had to be transported to USA for better medical care, as she was suffering from cancer.

2011–present

Majida wrote the lyrics of "Bokra" (Tomorrow), a charity opérette that was released on 11 November 2011. The single's proceeds were donated to various charitable initiatives with arts and culture programs aiming to raise funds for education projects in the Arab World. In an interview with Rima Maktabi in the CNN program – Inside the Middle East, Majida told the story of the new song which was produced by Quincy Jones and RedOne. In a surprising and unexpected decision, Majida announced that she has pulled herself out of the project. She said that the producer, Quincy Jones, did not meet her conditions and the team supervising and overlooking the project is not professional. Majida already put her voice on the operate, but when they asked her to record again in Qatar, she announced her withdrawal and waived her authorship rights when she backed out of the project.

"Ghazal"

Majida released her new album "Ghazal" on 22 June 2012 having worked on it for 6 years with many composers and poets.] "Biladi Ana" (My Country) is a duet between Majida and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour. Arabic lyrics are taken from Cadmus, Said Akl's theater play and French lyrics are freely inspired from the same theater play by Lebanese novelist Alexandre Najjar. Musical composition is accomplished by Joseph Khalifeh and Jean-Marie Riachi. This song describes Lebanon "the peace", "the beauty", "the creativity" and encourages fraternity, unity between people worldwide and calls for loving each other by surpassing all human differences. Majida and Youssou N'Dour have already performed it during the VIe annual Jeux de la Francophonie in 2009,hosted in Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Beirut accompanied with more than 150 dancers.

"Nour Men Nour”

Nour Men Nour (A Light From Light) is the fourteenth studio album by Majida released in December 2013 produced by V.Productions.The album explores 12 Christmas carols exploring a wide set of musical genres including classical music and Opera preserving the same musical track that Majida had sung over the years.

The Album peaked the top of the music charts in Virgin Megastores in Lebanon from the day of its release for several consecutive weeks.

Nour Men Nour was promoted majorly online and on Lebanese radio stations by two singles, Sahrit Eid and Min lli Tall, as well as a teaser on Majida's official Facebook page. Majida also filmed a Christmas special episode aired on Christmas Eve on MTV Lebanon which included a live recital from Collège du Sacré-Cœur catholic cathedral in Gemayzeh, Downtown Beirut, and scenes from a visit she had to "Mission De Vie" charity center. As Majida stated, Christmas is an occasion to celebrate as a one big Arabic family, while she added that all sales income and profits went to charity to encourage the spirit of sharing in the Arab World during the unstable periods.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Since the 1970s, Majida always released singles, with some of them were not included in her albums. She also performed many Christmas carols in several recitals, and dedicated patriotic singles for countries she visited. Most well-known singles are listed below:

Egyptian songs: remakes
 

Videography
 

Honors and titles
 

Majida during her honoring ceremony from France in Officer Grade in the French Embassy in Beirut, January 2013.

• Tunisia: National Order of the work from the Presidency of the Republic of Tunisia in 1987.
• Lebanon: The Golden Cedar, 1988.
• France: Shield from the French National Assembly for 1993.
• Lebanon: National Shield of Honor of the Cedars, Knight's Order from the President of the Lebanese Republic, 1994.
• Algeria: "Algerian citizenship" Certificate from the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, 1997.
• France: The Médecins Sans Frontières Shield in 1999.
• Egypt: Order of Merit from the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate, 2000.
• A Certificate and a shield of Honor for FAO Ambassador, 2001.
• Jordan: Honoring Shield from her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan in 2002.
• Ivory Coast: The National Shield of Honor, Order of Merit of Officer's Grade from the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, 2003.
• Syria: The Shield of Honour from the Syrian Ministry of Culture, 2004.
• Algeria: Le Bouclier de l'information et de la culture / Algerian Shield of Culture and Information and The Gold Medal for the fiftieth anniversary of the outbreak of the liberation revolution, from the President of Republic of Algeria in 2005.
• Lebanon: Honorary member of the Students' Scholarship Association at the American University in Beirut, 2005.
• Lebanon: Honorary President of the Lebanese Association for the prevention of osteoporosis and The Universal framework of the joints and bone disease – the Lebanese branch, 2007.
• Lebanon: Honorary Doctorate in Humanities from the Board of Trustees of the American University in Beirut, (2009).
• Belize: Patent of Lebanese honor and gratitude by the Universal Association of Lebanese Worldwide – Belize and the actual recognition of her efforts in the service of Lebanon, humanity and Universal peace (2009).
• Lebanon: Honoring from the Catholic Church on the occasion of an encounter of Catholic priests in Lebanon (2010).
• Morocco: The National Shield of Honour.
• Tunisia: The National Order of Cultural Merit from the Republic of Tunisia, 2010.
• Lebanon: The National Shield of Honor of the Cedars – Order of Commodore from the President of the Republic, 25 June 2011.
• France: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres – insigne d'Officier / Officer Grade, from the president of the Republic, 24 January 2013.
• Egypt: The Golden Key of the city of Alexandria from the mayor Mr. Tarek Mahdi, 20 March 2014.
• Spain: Order of Civil Merit, 2017