Slain singer wanted to pursue studies in Cairo

Dubai: Suzan Tamim wanted to give up her singing career and pursue studies at the American University in Cairo, said her close friend.

Joe Raad, who was also hairdresser of Suzan, the slain singer, was associated with her from 1996.

Raad told Gulf News over the telephone from his salon in Beirut that despite the problems that surrounded her personal life, Suzan was a feisty woman who knew exactly what she wanted to do in life.

"I am shocked to learn that her life came to such a tragic end. She was beautiful and charming. I had been to her house and met her father who was in tears and kept saying aloud that Suzan is all alone and there is no one at her side."

Raad said her father had not seen her for two years and was planning to come to Dubai in a couple of days to take the body back to Beirut.

"According to him she had suffered enough while she was alive and does not want the same for her now that she is dead. Her voice still rings in my ears. I spoke to her last month and it was then that she told me about her decision to give up her singing career and pursue her studies. She was just 18 years old when she shot to fame," said Raad.

"She used to confide a lot in me. She used to just telephone me and say 'Joe I want to talk to someone and so I called you'. From Cairo she moved to London and stayed there with her uncle but had to leave as her visa validity came to an end. One of her reasons to move to Dubai was because she had heard that if she bought a house in Dubai she would be automatically eligible for residency. This I was told by her father who always wanted his daughter back with him in Beirut," said Raad.

"I wanted her to be the face of my salon .... But then I decided to abandon the idea as I did not want to create more trouble than what was already plaguing her," said Raad.

Gulf News learnt that the singer's mother returned to Beirut just a couple of days before Suzan's death.

Troubled life

The late singer Suzan Tamim was not known for being on good terms with people around her. Whether she was just defiant and moody or downright mean will probably remain a mystery.

Suzan's relationship with her father, Abdul Sattar Tamim, was not stable. The two were not on speaking terms when Suzan met her second husband, Adel Matouk, who reconciled them after many attempts.

Abdul Sattar then tried to take over the management of his daughter's activities. He signed her up for some concerts, which did not go well with Matouk, who had signed a 15-year exclusive contract with Suzan.

Another incident that further strained the father-daughter relations was the arrest of Abdul Sattar in Cairo Airport in 2004 for possession of heroin, as reported by the Arabic media. He claimed that the watch box, containing the drugs, was given to him by one of Suzan's friends in Poland as a gift to the singer, and Suzan was called for interrogation.

Suzan's luck with her husbands was not better. When the 19-year-old first appeared on TV in 1996, she was already married to Ali Muzannar, who "took care of her because she was very young", in her own words.

After landing a role in the musical play Gadat Al Kamilia as a substitute to the play's original star, Lebanese singer Madonna, it seemed that Suzan's popularity was rising, but at a cost. Muzannar was not happy with his wife's newfound fame, and the couple were not on speaking terms. He also refused to divorce her. Suzan allegedly paid $1 million (about Dh3.67 million) for her first divorce in 2002.

Matouk, her second husband, had obtained an Interpol arrest-warrant against her in 2005 for stealing $230,000 and some jewellery from the safe at the couple's apartment in Adma, Lebanon.

He complained that she treated him with disrespect by allowing her father to negotiate and sign contracts on her behalf in violation of her exclusive contract with Matouk.

Another sore spot in the couple's relationship was Suzan's occasional denial of their marriage. She gave contradicting statements to the media, sometimes calling him her husband and other times referring to him as her 'manager'.

When things hit rock bottom, Suzan claimed that her marriage to Matouk was never consummated and threatened to sue him since she was his second wife, and as a French citizen, Matouk's second marriage was considered bigamy. Matouk is officially still Suzan's husband at the time of her death.