The Saudi artist, “Toha”, lies in King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, following she suffered a fracture in her thigh as a result of her fall. I went home and everything I had.”
The house of the popular artist “Toha” was subject to a fire, and the fire consumed all her possessions and her entire artistic archive, and she moved to live in her daughter’s house.
She combined singing and composing
The artist “Toha” is one of the Saudi artists who combined singing, composing and writing songs, and took the hand of many Saudi artists and poets. She has her limitations and caveats, eventually becoming one of the Arab artists that many of this generation have not heard of.
Her real name is “Fathiye Hassan Yahya” to later obtain the title “Toha” to be the nickname given to her by her father. She was born in 1934, and her first upbringing was in Al-Ahsa by virtue of her father’s work in customs. She came to Makkah at the age of 6 years following her father was appointed in The Ministry of Finance, and she used to go to the city of Jeddah from time to time because her mother’s family was there. Her father died when she was 12 years old, and the family’s final resting place settled in Jeddah. Her story began with singing in the shadow of a family in love with the colors of arts and literature, between a father who writes poetry and has a beautiful voice. He sings in family and friends sessions, in addition to having a music library full of records by Saudi and Arab artists, and she used to listen to them, which gave her a sense of music. The biggest role belongs to her brother, Dr. Muhammad Amin Hassan Yahya, the writer, composer and poet who supported her from the beginning, and taught her the basics of singing. He was the first to establish a special center for teaching singing and music in Saudi Arabia, which facilitated her cooperation with a group of well-known artists at the time.
her artistic career
She did not have enough education because there were no schools at that time, and she compensated for that by learning to write from her father and reading from her mother, who devoted herself to memorizing the Holy Qur’an. At the age of 14, she traveled to Egypt and stayed there for four months, accompanied by her brother, who brought her a private teacher to take advantage of the school. Egyptian in singing, but she refused to learn musical notes, and preferred listening education, and limited her interest within the scope of her country’s singing heritage.
Oud player
Her story with the oud began when she was 8 years old, when she used to seize the times when her brother Muhammad traveled by virtue of his work as a financial inspector, to start playing and humming on his own oud, but when he returned, he noticed that the strings were different, which angered him, and as the youngest of her sisters, Her father brought her a small Yemeni oud, and she played it on a daily basis while performing some songs in front of her friends from the neighbors’ daughters.
She began singing in 1949 at the age of 15, and during her long career she recorded many songs, whether she was writing and composing them, or from other melodies, as she cooperated with many of her generation, and she sang composed by Tariq Abdel Hakim, Siraj Omar, and Fawzi Mahsoun, who has a relationship with her. Neighborhood, and a melody that has more than four melodies.
She also sang from the words of the poet Salah Jalal and the writer Thuraya Qabil, in addition to a group of songs from her brother’s words. After that, she traveled to hold wedding parties in most Saudi cities. Her balance of songs is close to a hundred, in addition to the songs she presented from the ancient heritage, among her first songs were “He called me once and told me”, “Take care of me and do not be arrogant”, and “It is true that I finished”.
Am I “Toha”?
The youngest singer appeared in Saudi Arabia, as she was forced to stand on a chair while she sang at concerts in her early years, to watch people and watch her. She wrote and composed the song “Show me a handkerchief” to become her most famous song, and among her words is “Show me the handkerchief..and he said I am walking..his dress is long dark blue.” .. In the path is a walk”, this song was later repeated by Abdullah Rashad, Hassan Abdullah and Emirati singer Ahlam.
Among the important stations in the life of “Toha”, which she talked regarding in some of the television interviews that she conducted in recent years, was her meeting with Umm Kulthum, during one of the visits of the artist Toha to Egypt. She also met the artist Abdel Halim Hafez on one of his private visits to Saudi Arabia, and in one of the sessions that brought them together, she sang to him on the lute her well-known song “How do I repent … and I melt in your eyes.” Abdel Halim offered her to sing it following he memorized the melody from it, but he died some time later. Simple, this project was not achieved.
Although she has reached the age of nearly 80 years, “Toha” still participates in reviving concerts, and declares within the media regarding her stand with many Saudi artists such as Muhammad Abdo, who took from her some of what she memorized from the colors of singing Al-Dana and Al-Majrour.
