Khaberni - The Yemeni artist and media personality Abdulrahman Al-Haddad has passed away at the age of 76 years. His daughter, the artist Rana, announced her father's death to the Yemeni people and his fans through her official page on "Facebook".
Al-Haddad's life was rich with an artistic and media career that spanned about six decades, during which he enriched the Yemeni artistic library with many songs, albums, and tunes that varied between emotional, patriotic, social, and humanitarian themes. He was a media person who combined the solidity of news with the sweetness of string music.
The artist Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al-Haddad was born on March 13, 1950, in the city of Al Mukalla, the capital of Hadhramaut province, to a family who traced their roots back to Wadi Doan west of the province located in southeastern Yemen. He grew up under the guardianship of his father, a well-known Islamic preacher and scholar.
Signs of his artistic talent began to shape from his early years. In 1965, when he was still a teenager at the age of 15, he stood on the stage in Al Mukalla by reintroducing one of the most famous songs of the late giant artist Abu Bakr Salem Belfakih, titled (You Taught Me How to Love You), marking the birth of a new star in the Hadhrami and Yemeni song scene thereafter.
Al-Haddad grew up in the city of Al Mukalla, where he received his primary, middle, and high school education, before he left the country in 1966 to Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, where he completed his academic education in the halls of its university, specializing in journalism and media at the Faculty of Arts and graduated with honors.
After returning to his homeland, he joined the radio station in Al Mukalla as a broadcaster and program producer, remaining there for about 3 years, before he joined the Central Radio in Aden, the then capital of South Yemen, and also worked in Aden Television, where he initially served as a news anchor, in addition to presenting many visual and auditory arts and cultural programs.
His presence in Aden allowed him to record many songs through the radio, in addition to recording 10 vinyl records produced for him by the artistic company "Adlan Phon", which specialized at that time in producing and selling vinyl records for various artists.
Al-Haddad sang for many poets, composers, and famous artists of that era, and he also composed some of his own songs. He was distinguished in presenting the Hadhrami genre and he stood out among the few Southern artists who excelled in singing several Yemeni musical genres, especially the Sana'ani style. He was also considered one of the veteran artists who witnessed multiple successive artistic generations.
In 1976, he made his first international appearance, offering his first musical concert outside his country on one of the theaters in Kuwait, before traveling around different Gulf and Arab countries presenting many concerts, and participating in Yemeni and international cultural weeks, becoming one of the ambassadors of Yemeni art and a pioneer in the field.
In 1986, he left the country for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he settled and continued his artistic activities until 1989, moving between there and the Egyptian capital Cairo, recording numerous diverse musical albums.
In 1989, he returned to Sana'a, the capital of North Yemen at the time, and worked in the Ministries of Culture and Information, and as a broadcaster in Sana'a radio and television. After the announcement of Yemeni unification in 1990, he was appointed as an advisor to the Yemeni Ministry of Culture.
Al-Haddad was honored at the national and Arab levels with many medals and certificates of appreciation, considering his continuous artistic journey. Among the most prestigious medals he received was the first-degree Medal of Arts and Literature, the highest cultural medal in Yemen, awarded in 1989, and he also received the Culture Shield in 2005, along with official honors by several cultural ministries in the Gulf states.
Among the artistic titles bestowed upon Al-Haddad was the title "Artist of Appointments", linked to the names of his most famous songs and albums using this sentimental term such as (On the Appointment, and Delayed Appointment, and Oh How Lovely the Meeting Even Without an Appointment).
Several Yemeni artists, media persons, and activists through their digital platforms hastened to mourn the late artist, offering condolences to his family and fans, listing his virtues and speaking about his role in enriching the artistic scene, while many reposted segments and links of his various songs.
