Lebanese singer Majida El-Roumi

Majida El-Roumi (or Magida Al-Roumi), 53, is a Lebanese singer and soprano and one of the most successful and respected singers of the Arab world.

Majida El-Roumi was born to renowned musician Halim El Roumi and his wife Marie Loutfi, a Melkite Greek Catholic couple from the city of Tyre in Lebanon. Majida took interest in music from an early age, and one of her early songs recorded was a religious song, ‘Your Birth’ (Miladak) on the birth of Jesus Christ.

In 1977, Majida married Antoine Dfouni, a businessman from Byblos, Lebanon, had two daughters (Hala and Nour) and they divorced in 2006.

In 1976, Majida starred in the movie ‘Awdat Al Ibn Al Dal’ (The Return of the Prodigal Son) by Youssef Chahine and she also sang three songs for the movie. Chahine referred to her as 'the Voice of the 20th Century' and received the 'Egyptian Critics Award'.

Majida has performed at important festivals in the Arab world such as the festivals of Beiteddine, Jerash, Bosra, Carthage, and at the Cairo Opera House. She has also performed at prestigious concert halls such as the Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Centre, Carnegie Hall and Hunter College in New York City, the Place des Arts in Montreal, Fox Theatre (Detroit, Michigan), the Paris Olympia, Palais des Congrès de Paris, Athens Concert Hall in Greece and the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Majida performed a duet, ‘Light the Way’, with opera star José Carreras, on December 9, 2006, during the opening ceremony of the 15th Asian Games in Doha in 2006. In 2009, she performed ‘Nous sommes les amis du monde’, a duet with Youssou N'dour, on the inauguration of the ‘Jeux Olympiques de la Francophonie’ in Beirut, Lebanon.

Majida El Roumi was appointed an ambassador for the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 16, 2001.

In her career spanning more than three decades, Majida El Roumi has received various awards and honours including The Golden Cedar (Lebanon, 1988), National Order of the Cedar (Knighthood, Lebanon, 1994), Le Bouclier de l'information et de la culture / Algerian Shield of Culture (Algeria, 2005), The Shield of Honour (Ministry of Culture, Syria), The Shield of Honour (Jordan), The Shield of Honour (Tunis) and The Shield of Honour (Morocco).