Rajae Belmlih, also spelled Raja Belmalih ( ar, رجاء بلمليح; 22 April 1962 – 2 September 2007), was a Moroccan-Emirati singer.
Career
Belmlih's career began with the Moroccan talent show, ''Mawahib''. Her first major hit in the Arab World was ''
Ya-Jara Wadina'' in 1986. The young Rajae, a University undergraduate at the time, decided to sing her first hit song at her Hassan II campus in front of her fellow students prior to the official premiere that same day.
She later settled and worked from
Cairo, Egypt
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
while continuing her studies in Arabic literature and Philosophy at Mohamed V University in Rabat. She graduated in 1995 and enrolled for a doctorate. Belmlih was named a
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. UNESCO goodwill ambassad ...
in 1999 for her numerous actions in favour of charities within the Arab world.
She was an outspoken supporter of women's education in the poorer parts of the Arab world. She was a widely admired and respected figure in her native Morocco but also elsewhere in the Arab world where her image as a highly educated singer is untainted. She was granted Emirati citizenship as a tribute by the ruling family in
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area.
...
.
Death
Rajae Belmlih died in
Rabat, Morocco
Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populatio ...
on 2 September 2007, aged 45, after a long battle with breast cancer.
Albums
*''Ya Jara Wadeena'' (1986)
*''Sabri Alik Tal'' (1994)
*''Ya Ghayeb'' (1996)
*''Ietiraf'' (1998)
*''Shoq el oyoun'' (2002)
*''Haseb'' (2005)
References
External links
Rajae Belmlih Obituary(French)
Le Journal de Tanger: Rajae Belmlih biography(French)
20th-century Moroccan women singers
1962 births
2007 deaths
Musicians from Rabat
Naturalized citizens of the United Arab Emirates
Moroccan emigrants to the United Arab Emirates
Deaths from breast cancer
Deaths from cancer in Morocco
{{Morocco-bio-stub