Uplifting Syrian Women

Mayada Bseliss

Mayada Bseliss- A Woman of History

Throughout history, women like mayada bseliss have had a great impact in various fields, whether scientific, practical, or artistic. She put her touches and made history remember her, and generations pass on her legacy one generation after the other. 

As Ghada al-Samman, a Syrian writer, said “only art is what keeps us from going insane.”¹
Beauty came out of her lovely voice, from her pure soul love was born because God gave her a magnificent voice and a wonderful ability to perform. She was not the daughter of the Qudud Halabiya, nor was she a singer of modern video clips, she created a special and strongly present art. One of us was not pleased by her song” Kithbak Helo” which one day was a vocal test for many of those who aimed to express their pure and balanced voices because when you are able to sing this song well, it means you have a good voice. 

Who is Mayada Bseliss? 

The Syrian artist was born in 1967 in Aleppo city in Syria, where she got her primary and high school education. She has been an expert in singing since she was young by singing church hymns. Mayada Bseliss is a daughter of an old-fashioned family that’s why her beginning in the music field started with only religious hymns. Her actual start was not until she got married to the musician Samir Kwefati.²

Mayada Bseliss’s Artistic Beginning 

Her artistic beginning started around the age of nine. She quickly climbed the Arabic singing ladder and became one of the most important and famous Arabic voices until she passed.

She made with her husband, the musician Samir Kwefati, an elegant artistic couple for about forty years, who has always been looked at by the Arabic audience with admiring eyes and grateful hearts for that authenticity, sincerity, and steadiness in presenting elegant art. Through these years, Mayada Bseliss produced many singing albums, participated in a lot of concerts and local and international festivals, as well as participating in special songs and the intros of many popular drama television shows.³

The Eventful Life and Artistic Journey of Mayada Bseliss

Fourteen albums of Mayada Bseliss were released in 1986. The first album was”Ya Kately Belhajr” which is a song from old Syrian folklore. Her song”Kithbak Helo” got the gold medal as the best Arabic song in 1999 which was a passport to the world of fame. In 2010, an album of hers was out under the title of “Ila Ummy wa Ardy” which is a work that got delayed a lot but was worth the wait for it was at the expected level that her audience was used to. Mayada Bseliss also sang many intros for massive television shows like”Ekhwat Alturab”, and “Ayyam Alghadab”. 

She also held a lot of concerts in numerous congregations. Some of the most known ones are: 

  • A concert in the  Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, United States. 
  • Two parties in the Opera House in Madrid and in the Egyptian Opera House in 1998.³

Her Most Important Artistic Achievements

  • In the mid-seventies, the first public artistic participation for Mayada Bseliss was through an amateurs program in Aleppo radio station where she got first place.  After that, she participated in 1978 in “The Cotton Queen and Sun” operetta in which she won the cup for the most beautiful voice in the “Altalae festival”. In addition to the festival of Baghdad for the Youth in which she gained two prizes: one for the best voice and another one for the best performance.³
  • In 1982 she participated in the “Arous Alqalaa” operetta, as she reperformed many old songs that were remixed by the musician Samir Kwefati, like “Sulaima” and “Ya Zaery fe Alduha”, etc.³
  • In 1986, her first album was released under the title”Ya Kately Belhajr” which was also in participation with  Samir Kwefati, who remixed some of the old Arabic poems through this album.³
  • In 1995, Mayada Bseliss took part in the second Syrian Song Sestival and in the opening celebration of the Syrian satellite television. After a while, she released the album”Hanin” which had ten songs, including”Natalie” the song of Hussam Tahseen Bek, “Kithbak Helo”, “Ya Tayoub”, “Fakadt Alsehr”, “Henayna” and many more. This album got locally and internationally famous.³
  • In 1998, she participated in the Syrian Night in the Egyptian Opera House as she held numerous concerts at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, United States. In addition to two concerts in Madrid, Spain.³
  • In 1999, Mayada Bseliss gained the prize of the best Arabic song for”Kithbak Helo” which was released earlier that year.³
  • She released the album”Ya Ghali” which included nine songs. “Hawa Tany” was the most popular song, which won the golden prize of the best music video -best video clip- amongst the prizes from the 2001 Bahrain festival. This song also got the Ornina golden prize for the best song and rhythm.³
  • In 2002, she released a special album that included nine l national songs and special ones related to the Palestinian case, it was titled”Ajras Bethlehem”. Of its songs, we mention: “Samtan Samtan”, “Alquds”, “Bakien”, “Ya Jabal Ma Yhezak”, “Zaffat Al Shahid”, etc. She also participated in the Al Mahabba festival.³
  • In 2016, she released her last album titled: “Enta Bealby” which included ten songs. Like: “Alshahid”, “Halab”, “Ma Bkhaf”, “Wasakhto Al Saboun”, “Yedalo”, etc.³
  • In November 2020, Mayada Bseliss released a single under the name”Dakhlak la Teshrah” which was written by the Syrian poet Samir Tahhan and remixed by Samir Kwefati.³
  • In addition to private releases, concerts, and local and international festivals. Mayada Bseliss has always been considered one of the most important performers of drama intros by the Syrian audience.³

The Death of Mayada Bseliss

On 18 March 2021, on a Thursday morning, Mrs. Mayada Bseliss passed away after a long and tough journey with cancer which was recently known to the public. Between Wednesday’s midnight and the first hours of Thursday morning, March 18th, 2021, Mrs. Mayada Bseliss passed away after a long fight with cancer, which was recently revealed to the public. Her absence made a huge tragedy in the art world from the very first moments. Most of the Syrian artists and Mrs.Mayada Bseliss’s audience expressed their sadness with touching words that spread all over social media.³

Everyone who was charmed by her lovely voice shall never forget it. Her beautiful songs will always be present for people to enjoy listening to them because the death of Mayada Bseliss is just like a bad lie.
The question here is: could anyone fulfill the absence of Mayada Bseliss? 

Also read:

References:

[1] Hekam

[2] Marefa

[3] Arageek