Quiet tears shed for a life cut short

Beirut: In a modest, old Beirut building, members of Suzan Tamim's family were receiving the few people who came to offer their condolences.

On Wednesday evening, the humble house situated in the Aicha Bakkar area, was calm despite the horrible news that struck family, friends and acquaintances, two days before: Lebanese singer Tamim had been stabbed to death in her Dubai Marina apartment.

In the modest living room, there were no cries, no sobs, not even words, just a dozen men and women with pale faces rallying around a quiet women, wearing the white scarf of Sunnite mourning. Tears were running continuously down her cheeks. She was Suzan's mother.

In this modest house, and all along the narrow street, there was no place for words, no place for questions. Neighbours indicated the address with whispers or signs of the head.

In Suzan's house, a woman in her mid forties, wearing dark sunglasses, informed reporters that the family would not give any statements.

There was neither any glitter nor glamour in the home, the things that made the Lebanese singer dream. There was only a modest family mourning the horrific death of a loved one.

According to several people in Lebanese show business who knew Suzan, the singer had not been to Lebanon for more than five years, because of several court orders against her, generated by problems involving her second husband Adel Matouk.

Discovery

Director and producer Simon Asmar, who discovered Suzan in the Studio Al Fan contest in 1996, remembered she "was 18 years old when she won the national contest. She was in college, married to her first husband Ali Muzannar, who was in college with her".

"From her early years in showbiz, Suzan was a beautiful girl, likeable, friendly, very well-mannered, and educated, probably the most educated singer of her generation," he told Gulf News.

He remembered when Suzan met her second husband, Adel Matouk, she left Lebanon for Paris were he has a restaurant hosting singers and entertainers near the Champs Elysées.

Suzan signed a 15-year contract with Matouk. It was before problems surfaced between them, only eight months after their marriage.

Director Gerard Avedissian, who worked with Suzan in 1997 in Elias Rahbani's musical play Ghadat Al Kamilia, was struck at the time by the problems the young girl had with her first husband Ali Muzannar.

"She learnt her six songs and memorised her role in only ten days. She was eager to learn. Eager to be in showbiz, ambitious," he told Gulf News.

"She had a beautiful face, a nice voice. And she succeeded in Ghadat Al Kamilia which was her first appearance on stage," he added.

"She was a young girl with tonnes of problems at the time. Then she left Beirut for a while, went to London to escape from her first husband," he explained.

"Before moving to Dubai last year, Suzan lived for more than four years in Cairo," said Avedissian who has been living in the Egyptian capital for the past few years.

Composer Samir Sfeir was one of Suzan's friends. He composed a song for her two years ago on the occasion of the first commemoration of Lebanese Prime minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. "Since Suzan could not come to Lebanon, I went to Cairo where she lived, in order to work with her on the song entitled 'Ashak'. Then director Walid Naseef filmed her in Cairo. He filmed some scenes in Lebanon to make the video clip," he told Gulf News.

"I was her friend. I used to spend vacations in Alexandria and Sharm Al Shaikh with my wife, Suzan and her mother. We were even preparing for a CD. It was until about nine months ago ... At that time, she left Egypt for London, to see her maternal uncle. After a week in the British capital she disappeared.

"I called her several times but I couldn't find her, there was no answer. Then I knew that she wanted to get away from it all," he said. "It was only two days ago, when I heard the news of her death, that I knew she had moved to Dubai," he added.

"Suzan felt trapped, trapped because of her past. She was generous, good-hearted, full of life, but sometimes she used to be angry and down. At these moments she used to say that she had no luck and there wouldn't be any solutions to her problems," Sfeir said.

"She knew she was talented but that she couldn't progress in her career because of her troubled private life. She was right," he said. "She suffered a lot and she used to feel alone. She had two dreams, to release a new CD and become really famous and to come back home," he added.

"She would have given all the money in the world to come back to Beirut, but with the lawsuits she knew that she would be humiliated; that's why she never came back," he added.

Suzan's body will be repatriated next week.