Kazim al-Saher was born in 1961 in Nainawa, northern Iraq, one of 10 children of a palace worker. Music arrived through the radio, and al-Saher was entranced, especially by the compositions of the legendary Egyptian composer Mohamed Abdel Wahab. He was so smitten that when he was 10 he sold his bicycle to buy an old guitar, and two years later started writing his own songs. During his teens he switched to oud ("I play oud and guitar. I use the oud to compose my music. I first started on the guitar and later in my studies of classical Arabic music the oud."), and at the age of 21 he was admitted to the Baghdad Music Academy.
His aim was a career in music, but getting a foot in the door wasn't easy. All the producers he approached turned him away, because of his insistence on recording his own - rather than their - material. The only way in was through the back door, and that was what he used. In 1987, with the collusion of a TV producer friend, al-Saher slipped his song "Ladghat El Hayya" (The Snake Bite) onto Iraqi national television.
The uproar was immediate, since the song was an allegory to the recently concluded Iran-Iraq war. He was given an ultimatum: change the lyrics or have the song banned. He refused to alter a word, but blacklisting the piece only made it more popular, and soon he was given concerts all over the Gulf, and recording for a Kuwaiti label. Another hit ("Obart Al Shat") the following year cemented his status, but led to plenty of criticism from his professors at the Academy that he'd forsaken the heights of classical music for base sha'bi pop. Just to prove them wrong, in 1989 al-Saher composed the opus La Ya Sadiki, where he used maqams, or scales, that had been unheard in Iraqi music for decades.
"I believe that the classical side of my compositions is the foundation for my music," he explained, "and the contemporary side allows for new innovations as well as for me to reach varies audiences especially the younger generation. But I find it important to first write my song in a classical style giving it the depth of structure of the traditional Arabic music, and then carefully weaving the contemporary sounds into the music. It allows for multiple interpretations I especially see this through the lyrics and the diverse rhythms I use in my compositions. Some may listen to the words of my songs and feel a romantic love others find another interpretation to the lyrics."
He'd proved himself to be an all-rounder, and went truly international, undertaking his first U.S. tour. Al-Saher finally left Iraq in 1993, moving first to Lebanon, then settling in Cairo. But America had proved to be friendly territory, even though none of his albums was officially released there (that wouldn't happen until 2000, with The Impossible Love, still his only U.S. record); in 1998 he performed his composition "Tathakkar" for the U.S. Congress and the United Nations, winning a UNICEF award.
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