Mansour Rahbani, a prominent Arab composer and lyricist who together with his late brother wrote the music and plays for one of Lebanon's top divas, Fairouz, died Tuesday, Lebanon's state-run news agency reported. He was 83.
Rahbani was admitted to the hospital two weeks ago suffering from severe flu, the agency said.
The Rahbani Brothers, as Mansour Rahbani and his late brother Assi were known, started their career helping arrange a local church choir in their hometown of Antelias, on the Mediterranean coast just north of Beirut. Then Assi Rahbani got a job at Beirut Radio where the brothers composed their first song.
In 1955, Assi married singer Nuhad Haddad, who later became famous by the name Fairouz and performed with the brothers.
The Rahbani Brothers and Fairouz went on to become Lebanon's most famous trio, performing in Lebanon and around the world.
They performed in the United States for the first time in the 1960s, and in 1971 Fairouz and the Rahbani Brothers gained prominence in the United States when they performed before a sold-out audience at New York's Carnegie Hall.
After Assi Rahbani died in 1986, Mansour Rahbani continued writing songs and musicals. His last play, "The Return of the Phoenix," is currently playing in Beirut.
Last year Mansour Rahbani defended Fairouz, whose patriotic Lebanese and nationalist Arab songs have earned her near-mythic status, when she was criticized by some anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon for performing in Damascus for the first time in three decades.
Syria controlled Lebanon for almost three decades until its army was forced to leave in 2005 under intense international pressure following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Since then, anti-Syrian politicians have accused Damascus of orchestrating the chaos and assassinations that have spiked in Lebanon. Syria has denied it.
The singer's performance was "a message of love and peace from Lebanon to Syria _ a message of friendship, not subservience," Mansour Rahbani said at the time. "So, please refrain from thrusting our name in the political mud."
