Afifa Iskandar

Afifa Iskandar was an Iraqi singer of Armenian and Greek descent who was born in Mosul. She was considered one of the best female singers in Iraqi history. She was nicknamed the "Iraqi Blackbird". She started singing at the age of 5 and sang the traditional form of Arabic music called maqam. She also worked as an actress and appeared in many productions. She traveled to Egypt in 1938 and worked with famous artists like Badia Masabni, Taheyya Kariokka, and Mohamed Abdel Wahab. She joined the Kurdish uprising in 1961 and was arrested in 1963 for participating in a demonstration. She returned to Baghdad in 1970 after a peace agreement. She married in 1974 and had four sons. She died of cancer on October 21, 2012 in Baghdad. She sang nearly 1500 songs, but not all of them have been recorded. Some of her songs are among the most important of the Iraqi folk music.