Abd al-Karim Abd al-Qadir leaves “Watan al-Nahar” with “I Reddit.”
Yesterday, the artist Abdul Karim Abdul Qadir, one of the symbols of Kuwaiti and Gulf creativity, was buried in Kuwait, after a career full of giving that spanned about 6 decades, during which he enriched the Kuwaiti, Gulf and Arab music library with a bouquet of the most wonderful songs with their distinguished rhythms, to win many appreciation awards locally and regionally, after his departure in the evening Friday, at the age of 82, after suffering from illness.
Abdul Qadir was born in 1941, in Al-Zuhairiya, in the city of Al-Zubair. In Kuwait, he made his way to success relying on his talent, as he did not study music; He worked as an employee in the Ministry of the Interior, then moved to the Customs Department, then the Music Department of the Ministry of Information, before his retirement.
His beginning was singing with muwashahat, so the artist Youssef Al-Muhanna composed a religious song for him entitled “Shawqi Sa’a Al-Madina.”
Abdul Qadir left a solid artistic legacy in the memory of generations, such as his famous song “Sery Al-Lail Ya Qamarna”, which he sang in 1969, written by Abdullah Muhammad Al-Otaibi and composed by Ahmed Baqer, in which: “We waited for you, O our moon / nor did you come in our evening / and your effects, O our moon / take you Night and passion. To his iconic song, “I returned to your eyes”: “I returned to your eyes… I returned to you / I bowed to you like the bathroom of the house”, which he sang after returning to Kuwait from a medical trip.
He also sang: “Be unjust”; Lyrics: Muhammad Mahrous and Abdul Rahman Al-Baijan. In the seventies, the young composer Mustafa Al-Awadi composed for him the song “Stay with me in Al-Rai”, then the song “Oh, Al-Asmar, Zain”, from the words of the poet Youssef Nasser.
And he collaborated with the Saudi composer Abd al-Rab Idris in “The New Age”, from the words of Badr Bourisli. He also collaborated with Talal Maddah in many of his distinguished works, such as the album “You Saw You” released in 1994.
He bore the title “Al-Sawt Al-Jarih” in 1988 after his famous song “Ajar Al-Sawt”, and he is famous for his song “Shakhbarak”, which was released in 1998 in the album of the artist Abdel Karim Abdel Qader, composed by Idris, and in which the poet Abdel Latif Al-Bannai, the writer of the text, immortalizes the story of A Kuwaiti prisoner in Iraqi prisons… The song recounts the story of a mother who remembers her absent son: “Where are you and how do I tell you…/ O stranger from your home/ Every day I look at your house/ I walk under this wall/ I look at your deserted house… What remains is the Iron Gate Where are you, Fener Halbayt/ Where are you/ After you, the world has been extinguished/ There is no light left in the streets.”
It won the Best Video Song Award (directed by Yarub Burahma) at the fourth Cairo Festival in 1998, while its singers won the Golden Award for being the best artist at the festival.
And this is not the only song composed by Idris. Rather, it devoted cooperation between the two stars since the seventies, and resulted in works including: “My Lateness”, “I Confess to You”, “Gharib”, “In Brief” and “Visitors” … all of which were written by the poet. Bader Bouresli.
He also sang for other composers, including Suleiman Al-Mulla, Mishaal Al-Arouj, Anwar Abdullah, Tariq Al-Awadi, Saleh Obaidoun, and Khaled Abdul-Karim, and he sang texts for poets, most notably Abdul Latif Al-Bannai and Badr Bouresli, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Dayem Al-Saif, Prince Fahd bin Khaled, and Prince Saud bin Bandar, Prince Muhammad bin Abdullah Al-Faisal, Khaled Al-Bathal, and Mubarak Al-Hudaybi.
And he excelled in his patriotic works, which were among the best written in expressing his affiliation with and adoration for his country (Kuwait). Until the latter, with its spontaneity and sincere feeling, became a symbol of the country’s liberation from the Iraqi invasion. He also performed sports songs that were chanted in the stands while cheering the national teams, including the song “In the Name of God”, which aroused the enthusiasm of the followers of the Kuwait National Football Team (Al-Azraq) in its golden age.
Unlike most singers, the deceased did not find himself in public or private concerts, and he believed that his giving behind the recording microphones allowed him to spread his art on a larger scale, and he gained sweeping popularity in the Gulf countries.
Abdel-Qader won many awards, including the “Bronze Disc” award at the “Cairo Lyric Festival” for the song “The Embers of Farewell”, and the award for the best song in the same festival in 1998 for the song “Shakhbarak”. “Winter at Tantora” in Saudi Arabia in 2019 and the “Kuwait Music Festival” in 2015.
Fine art and original sound
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Information mourned the great artist who left an immortal artistic legacy in the history of the Kuwaiti song, and an inexhaustible balance of love and appreciation in the hearts of his local, Gulf and Arab fans, after a journey of giving that lasted for more than sixty years.
The ministry’s spokeswoman, Anwar Murad, conveyed the condolences of the Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Abdul Rahman Al-Mutairi, and his condolences to the family of the deceased.
She said that the late great artist was among the most influential artists on the Kuwaiti art scene. He gained fame throughout the Arab world with his fine art and his authentic voice.
The head of the “General Authority of Entertainment” in Saudi Arabia also mourned the late advisor Turki Al Sheikh, the great, and wrote on “Twitter”: “May God have mercy on the great artist Abdel Karim Abdel Qader, and my condolences to his honorable family and all his fans in Kuwait and the Arab world. Today we lose a symbol of the Gulf and Arab song.
The artist, Abd al-Majid Abdullah, also mourned him on Twitter, writing: “May God have mercy on Abu Khaled, the artist who planted love and beauty in us and influenced our feelings.”
And the artist Abdullah Al-Ruwaishid said, condoling: “May God have mercy on you, my big brother.
In turn, Nawal al-Kuwaiti called him: “May God have mercy on the voice of the homeland of the day and the voice of our hearts, Abdul Karim Abdul Qadir. Kuwait lost a great person today and a landmark of its features, (…) We will not forget this voice that we grew up hearing, so it owned our hearts.”
Rashid Al-Majed said: “Farewell, the last night we gather… May God have mercy on the father, the professor and the big heart… You were like a spiritual father, teacher and inspiration. You are gone Aba Khaled, but your memory will remain engraved in my heart. My sincere condolences and sympathy to my brothers and family in Kuwait, the Gulf and the Arab world.
The artist, Khaled Al-Obaid, mourned him, saying: “With great sadness and sorrow, I received the news of the death of our late deceased artist, Watan Al-Nahar.”
