“Youm 7” TV commemorated the death of the artist Laila Murad, as she is one of the most famous singers of the beautiful era, who passed away from our world on November 21, 1995, at the age of 77 years. Her real name is Lilian Zaki Murad Mordechai, and she was born in Alexandria, on the 17th. February 1918, to a family of Jewish origin, and her father is the singer and composer Ibrahim Zaki Mordechai “Zaki Mourad”, who performed the operetta The Good Ten, and her mother is Jamila Ibrahim Rosho, an Egyptian Jew, and the daughter of concert caterer Ibrahim Rosho.
Where Laila Murad began her artistic career at the age of fourteen, singing in private concerts and then public concerts, then she joined the radio as a singer, after which she recorded records with her voice in 1937, and entered the field of acting for the first time in 1938 in the movie “Long Live Love” opposite Mohamed Abdel Wahab, and she attracted attention. The vision of director Togo Mizrahi, who shaped her artistic personality and made her the first in the history of the Arab screen, presented with her the movie “A Rainy Night” in 1939 with Youssef Wehbe, and they formed an artistic triangle between Laila Murad, Youssef Wehbe, and Togo Mizrahi in the films “Laila Bint Al-Rif, Laila Bint Madaris, and The Stroke of Destiny.”
She had a busy artistic career, whether in singing or acting, as she sang about 1,200 songs. Laila Murad’s name was linked to the name of the actor, producer and director Anwar Wagdy after her first film with him. Her last film was The Unknown Lover with the artist Hussein Sedqi, and after that she retired from artistic work. She got married. Laila from Anwar and Jeddi, while they participated together in the movie Laila, Daughter of the Poor, and their marriage lasted 8 years. During those years, Laila Murad converted to Islam in 1946 AD.
She woke up from her sleep to hear the sound of the dawn call to prayer, and then she woke up Anwar Wagdy, and said to him, “I want to get up and pray the dawn prayer.” Then he took her to the sheikh of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, and she converted to Islam at the hands of Sheikh Mahmoud Abu Al-Oyoun, and she learned the fundamentals of the religion from him, and she continued to follow the Islamic religion until her death. God, she held the first table for the Most Merciful in Tannery Street, and Sheikh Mahmoud Makki chose for her the name by which she became famous, “Laila Murad” instead of Laila Zaki Mordechai Asulin. Her song “O We Are Going to the Precious Prophet” represents one of the most beautiful and famous Hajj songs in Egypt. It is a song Written by the poet Abu Al-Saud Al-Abyari and composed by Riyad Al-Sunbati.
