Ilham al-Madfai ( ar, إلهام المدفعي) (born 1942) is an Iraqi guitarist, singer and composer. al-Madfai's synthesis of Western guitar stylings with traditional Iraqi music has made him a popular performer in his native country and throughout the Middle East. Beginning in 1999, al-Madfai released a string of albums on EMI's label, including his platinum

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

debut, ''Ilham al-Madfai'' (1999), ''Live at the Hard Rock Cafe'' (2001), ''Baghdad'' (2003) and ''The Voice of Iraq: The Best of Ilham al-Madfai'' (2005). In 2009, Al-Madfai released ''Dishdasha''. His Western-inspired compositions led to a nickname; "The Baghdad Beatle".

Biography

Al-Madfai began studying guitar at age twelve. He formed The Twisters in 1961, Iraq's first rock and roll band.Robin Denselow, ''Straight Outta Baghdad'', The Guardian (11 June 2004).
/ref> Following a three-year sojourn in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

with the group, al-Madfai moved to England to complete an engineering degree. While in London, he became a regular at the Baghdad Cafe, where he met fellow musicians

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

and

Georgie Fame Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the on ...

. Returning to Baghdad in 1967, he began to mix Western and Eastern instrumentation and rhythms. Al-Madfai developed a major following in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

in the 1970s, but

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

's rise to power in 1979 compelled the artist to leave and take construction jobs around the Gulf for much of the following decade. Al-Madfai returned to Iraq shortly before the

First Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

and was subsequently banned from leaving the country. He emigrated to

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

in 1994, where he presently resides. Al-Madfai was granted Jordanian citizenship from

King Hussein Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family o ...

, for exceptional talents and achievement. On 9 August 2010, he was the featured artist in a late-night prom at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

in London."Prom 33: BBC Radio 3 World Routes Academy"
What's On / Proms by Day 9 August 2010, BBC Proms In 2017 a Polish documentary movie ''Arabic secret'' was released in which his Polish son visited him for the very first time in Jordan. Ilham al-Madfai was surprised with the visit.

Selected discography

*''Ilham al-Madfai'' (1999) EMI *''Live at the Hard Rock Cafe'' (2001) EMI *''Baghdad'' (2003) EMI *''The Voice of Iraq: The Best of Ilham al-Madfai'' (2005) EMI *''Dishdasha'' (2009)

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

References

External links

Official website
*https://www.filmweb.pl/film/Arabski+sekret-2017-781788 {{DEFAULTSORT:Madfai, Ilham 1942 births Iraqi composers Iraqi guitarists 20th-century Iraqi male singers 21st-century Iraqi male singers Living people Musicians from Baghdad Iraqi emigrants to Jordan Naturalized citizens of Jordan Virgin Records artists English language singers from Iraq