Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Abdullah Haddad (1938-1994) a Palestinian artist and poet, born in the city of Haifa, nicknamed “the artist of the Palestinian revolution.” He was famous for his renewal of the Palestinian heritage and singing for the Palestinian cause. It expresses the pulse of the Palestinian street. One of his most famous poems is the poem “The Arab Tactic”, which he sang in front of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Aden in 1983 and was widely known.
The Palestinian poet Abdullah Haddad was born in Haifa in 1938 AD, and lived the first ten years of his childhood in it, and then left it in 1948 AD with his father's family, leaving behind his mother, who after that fate did not want to bring him together with her, and Abdullah Haddad left the cradle of his childhood and lived in Diaspora even passed away. Abdullah Haddad left Haifa heading towards Syria, and from there to Lebanon, where his artistic breakthrough was, so he began working in writing artistic programs for the radio there, moving between composition, preparation, composition, playwriting, melody, and songs that only expressed the pulse of the Palestinian street. He participated in many Lebanese and Egyptian series and films.
Among his writings are “I am an authentic Arab”, “Coffee”, “The Budget”, “To Build You”, “A Game” and “Oh My Pony”, in addition to his playing the role of “Koji Kabuto” in the cartoon series “Grendizer”.
At the beginning of the sixties, he founded the “Madar Al-Shaabi Arts” troupe in Lebanon, which performed directly. The children also studied in the “Isaad Al-Tofola and Al-Samoud” schools, which are concerned with orphaned children, where he taught them music in partnership with other artists and specialized musicians. Haddad was responsible for the word and melody, Where the teams that left the schools were traveling and touring in many Arab, American and European countries to display Palestinian folklore and art in a civilized way with word and music, and these teams gained great acceptance and success at that time, and the “Zahrat al-Madaen” band was established later, and it is a band affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization . The members of the troupe were children from the Esaad Al-Tufola school who became young men who insisted on continuing in the troupe to present Palestinian art to the world.
He was called “the artist of the Palestinian revolution,” and Germany granted him, during one of his artistic tours with children, the title of “virtuous educator” because of the children’s love for him, in addition to the coordination and arrangement presented in his works. And his daughter Mays says: “We were aware of our father, the human artist, and we were aware of the aesthetics of his beautiful works of art. My father was full of love and humility, and we were accustomed to respect, and he was always keen to teach us. My father was loved by the audience, and they used to repeat his songs and ask for them, and he had a relationship with many Lebanese and Jordanian artists, in addition to Arab artists. My father has always had a dream of returning to his homeland, Palestine, as it is his first and last issue, and this was evident in his songs and poems, as they are full of longing for the homeland, and demanding return, as he rejects the idea of immigration and alienation, and he fought his own struggle towards his cause with his art, which he considered the most important method of struggle.
In the late eighties, Haddad fell ill with heart disease, which caused him great suffering. In advanced stages, doctors advised him not to practice singing on stage, but music kept giving him the strength to stay. He traveled with his family to Denmark in 1990 and settled there, until he passed away in 1994 in the Danish city of Aarhus, leaving a great artistic legacy. There he said to his family: “It pains me that I will leave you in the countries of the West, reassuring the soul that you will live a decent life, and I regret that I will not be reassured if I leave you under the care of an Arab government.”
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To