Lotfi Bouchnak ( aeb, لطفي بوشناق, Bosnian: Lutfi Bošnjak) (born January 18, 1954) is a Tunisian singer,

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player, composer and public figure. He is considered one of the best

tenors A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wid ...

in the Middle East, North Africa, and the

Arab world The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

and has been dubbed as Tunisia's "

Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...

". He also played in Tunisian TV series and movies including Maktoub, La boîte magique, Halou u mer and El paraíso ya no es lo que era.

Biography

Bouchnak was born in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

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to a family of Bosniak origin. At a young age, he began re-performing the songs of

Oum Kalthoum Umm Kulthum ( ar, أم كلثوم, , also spelled ''Oum Kalthoum'' in English; born Fatima Ibrahim es-Sayyid el-Beltagi, ar, فاطمة إبراهيم السيد البلتاجي, Fāṭima ʾIbrāhīm es-Sayyid el-Beltāǧī, link=no; 31 Dece ...

and other masters of

Egyptian music Music has been an integral part of Egyptian culture since antiquity in Egypt. Egyptian music had a significant impact on the development of ancient Greek music, and via the Greeks it was important to early European music well into the Middle A ...

. He joined the "Youth Musical Group of Tunis", then "Arrachidia", where he started improving his vocal skills with

Ali Sriti Ali Sriti () (b. 1919 in Tunis–d. 5 April 2007) was a Tunisian oudist, composer, and music teacher. Biography He learned music at a young age from his father, who encouraged him to listen to classical Arabic music including Egyptians Sayed D ...

. He also learnt to play the

Oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...

. In 1979, at the age of 25, Bouchnak recorded his first song composed by Ahmed Siddiqui. He then started working with other famous composers such as Sayed Mekkaoui, Fathallah Ahmed, and Anwar Brahem. In the 1980s, he started composing songs for other artists such as Khaled and the rap group

IAM IAM may refer to: Concepts * Identity and access management, a concept that combines business processes, policies and technologies * Indo-Aryan migration, the theory that speakers of Indo-Aryan languages migrated into the Indian subcontinent dur ...

. Bouchnak has been one of few artists to have regular shows in the

Cairo Opera House The Cairo Opera House ( ar, دار الأوبرا المصرية, ''Dār el-Opera el-Masreyya''; literally "Egyptian Opera House"), part of Cairo's National Cultural Centre, is the main performing arts venue in the Egyptian capital. Home to mos ...

since 1992. He won the Best Arab Singer Award in Washington DC, in 1997. In 2019 he collaborates with the Tunisian heavy metal band

Myrath Myrath ( ar, ميراث ''mīrāth'', "Legacy") is a Tunisian progressive metal band formed in 2001 by guitarist Malek Ben Arbia and currently based in Tunisia. The band has been noted for its mix of Arabic and Middle Eastern instrumentation wi ...

on the song "Mersal" (from their album ''

Shehili ''Shehili'' is the fifth studio album by Tunisian progressive metal band Myrath, released on 3 March 2019. The group began to work on it in early 2017 and originally planned to release it later that year. Myrath was already thinking of the album a ...

'') and with the Italian artist Tosca in her album ''Morabeza''.

Honours and awards

Honours

* Grand Officier of the

National Order of Merit of Tunisia National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

* Grand Officier of the Order of the Seventh of November of

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* Grand Star of the Order of Culture, Science and Arts of Palestine

Awards

* Prize of

Khedivial Opera House The Khedivial Opera House or Royal Opera House ( ar, دار الأوبرا الخديوية / ALA-LC: ''Dār Awbirā al-Khudaywī'') was an opera house in Cairo, Egypt, the oldest opera house in all of Africa. It was inaugurated on 1 November 1 ...

* Gold Medal of

Institut du Monde Arabe The ''Institut du Monde Arabe'', French for Arab World Institute, abbreviated ''IMA'', is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural an ...

* Gold Medal of the

Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) is a Tunis-based institution of the Arab League, established in accordance with article 3 of the Arab Cultural Unity Charter by an announcement made in Cairo, Egypt, o ...

* Gold Medal of National Festival of Popular Arts of Marrakech * Medal of the City of

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...

References

External links

1952 births Tunisian people of Turkish descent Tunisian people of Bosniak descent Living people 20th-century Tunisian male singers 21st-century Tunisian male singers Tunisian oud players {{Tunisia-bio-stub