Who is Asmahan?

A legendary Syrian singer, Asmahan was born in 1917 to a family known for their political resistance in a region riddled with changing colonial make-ups. Her family fled to Cairo in the 1920s, where her and her brother, Farid, developed their virtuosic musical skills, and were taken in by some of Egypt's most outstanding composers and personalities on the scene. However, coming from a community with conservative values, she was shunned for entering the entertainment business. She was determined to pursue music and performance nonetheless, and after a brief marriage where she was based in Damascus, she returned to Egypt and grew her stardom. Towards the end of the British and French mandates during WWII, the Free French reached out to her to help topple Vichy France's hold on Syria.