Abed Azrie

Who is Abed Azrie?

Abed Azrie or Abed Azrié is a Syrian singer who performs Arab classical music, although he claims to belong to no particular music tradition. In his work he sets ancient and modern Arabic texts to traditional instruments, and synthesizers.

He was born in Aleppo, and after living for a time in Beirut moved to Paris at the age of 22 where he studied Western classical music. While there he translated classical poetry, such as the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, into French. He has stated that he prefers to live in the West, saying in a 2000 interview that he has an "inability to work in the Arab countries, in which the way people live is still conditioned by halal and haram. Here I can produce contemporary art, I can work in freedom, and there is 'motion' around what I produce: journalism, concerts, programme…Nobody tells me to write a song for a specific political occasion."

His music has been featured in the films Al Leja, directed by Ryad Chaia, and Elia Suleiman's Chronicle of a Disappearance.