Ziad Rahbani

Ziad Rahbani was a Lebanese composer, pianist, playwright, and political commentator, and the son of singer Fairuz and composer Assi Rahbani. He began composing professionally as a teenager, writing his mother’s first hit song for her at just seventeen, and went on to blend jazz, funk, and Eastern melody into a style often called Arabic oriental jazz. His politically charged musicals became landmarks of Lebanese theatre, sharply satirizing sectarian politics both during and after the civil war. He passed away in 2025, remembered as one of the most influential and uncompromising cultural voices in modern Lebanese history.