Muneer Murad

Muneer Murad (b. January 13, 1922; d. October 17, 1981)

Birth name:
Maurice Zaki Murad

Place of birth
Cairo, Egypt

Muneer Murad was a versatile artist, whose musical compositions were both light and fun-to-listen-to. In his early beginnings he acted in films such as "naharak said" (Have a Nice Day).

Murad was born to a father who composed music. As he grew up, he found that his elder sister Layla was already singing in the Radio. In 1939, he left college and took a number of odd jobs before sneaking his way into the movie business. He worked as an assistant to director Kamal Selim on 20 film projects in the 1940s.

His music compositions had a touch of western Jazz, which made them difficult to grasp by the Egyptian audience. His breakthrough, however, came when he put the music to Shadia's song "wahed .. etneen".

Murad wrote the score of songs that were sung by promising vocalists in Egypt and other Arab countries. His was quicktempo.

Murad converted to Islam and was married to the now-retired actress Soheer al-Babli.