Samir Al-Ajani

Samir Al-Ajani (Arabic: الاجاني سامر) (born May 12, 1951 in Baalbek, Lebanon) was a popular Lebanese singer during the late 70s to the early 80s. Samir released only two albums (Habibi Ana in 1980 and Ana W Albi in 1987) and five singles before his death in 1987. He is well known in Lebanon because of his tragic history and ability to write about it in his music.

Biography

Samir first became well known in Lebanon as a café singer, often performing for crowds that flooded café's beyond their general customer capacity. He was mostly known for his powerful and emotional lyrics based on his life experiences. While a majority of his music was original, he usually performed Arabic hits of the current time.

Samir attended the American University of Beirut where he studied Medical Science, despite his immense desire to be a singer as his parents highly dissaproved of such a career. Here he met Diana Lajoié, a French girl from Corsica who would later become the subject of many of his lyrics.

After graduating, Samir began to perform in small café's around his hometown of Baalbek before gaining popularity and being employed to perform in several more upper-class restaurants and café's in Beirut. His voice became well renowned with an underground fan-base until he was first picked up by record label Rotana in 1978. By the time his first album "Habib Ana" came out in 1980, Samir had achieved moderate success in Lebanon and its surrounding countries.

In 1986, Samir eloped with Diana Lajoié and Diana fell pregnant in March of 1987. Unfortunately, Samir was to discover a lump underneath his armpit that was revealed to be Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Doctors informed Samir that his time was very limited and there was little they could do - Samir would probably not live out the year. Despite this, Samir released an album "Ana W Albi" (translating appropriately to: Me and My Heart - meaning Diana) and released two singles from it; "I am dreaming of Diana" (Arabic: أحلم بديانا) and "A song for my son" (Arabic: الأغنية لابني) both in English and Arabic before passing away on November 20, 1987 - two days before his son was born.
Rotana stopped the release and production of "Ana W Albi" almost immediately after his death.

Today

Today, Samir is still considered one of the best voices in Arabic music and is often listed as the inspiration of modern Arabic singers both Male and Female. His song "A song for my son" was at one point rumored to be remade by Egyptian singer Amro Diab but no such song has appeared.

A theatrical play based on the story of Samir, Diana and their resulting son (also named Samir) is currently playing in Sydney, Australia. Appropriately named "A song for my son", it tells the story of Samir JNR coming to grips with the loss of a father he has never known and Arab life in the multicultural society that is Australia.

Discography-Singles

Habibi Ana

*Bhebek
*Inta Hayati
*Hadeni

Ana W Albi

*A song for my son
*I am dreaming of Diana

amir Al-Ajani, Jr.

Samir had only one child with Diana Lajoié. Samir-André Lajoié currently resides in Australia with his mother and goes by the name of Samir Frances. He has been a relatively successful print model for large brands namely in Japanese and Chinese markets, as well as FCUK and G-Star RAW. He is notable as the first caucasian model for the Japanese clothing brand B-Day. He was also a reasonably popular soap opera actor on the French B-soap series Amor et Perte until his departure from the show in 2005.