| Laila Ghofran Arabic: ليلى غفران | |||||||
| Birth Name: | Jamila Omar Bouamout Arabic: جميلة عمر بوعمرت | ||||||
| Birth Date: | 1961 3, df=yes | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Morocco | ||||||
| Years Active: | 1981–present | ||||||
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Jamila Omar Bouamout (Arabic: جميلة بو عمرت ), better known as Laila Ghofran (Arabic: ليلى غفران; alt Laila Ghofrane, Layla Ghofran; born 19 March 1961) is a Moroccan-Egyptian singer and actress who started her career in the music industry in the 80s and broke through in the early 90s.[1] To the people in the Arab world, she's called as the "Sultana of Taarab" due to her strong and sensational voice and her popular covers of classic Arabic songs.
Ghofran's career began in the 1980s but really picked up between 1988 and 1998, elevating her to the status of Arab diva, in part due to the work of her then-husband and manager Ibrahim Aakad.[2]
Ghofran left to Paris and London due to her family's rejection of her interest in pursuing a career in music, and started singing for Arab communities in hotels and restaurants. She released her first song in Moroccan dialect, titled "El Youm El Awel" in 1982, which was well-received in Morocco.
Out of fear of her father and in order to protect her family, she took the name "Laila Ghofran" to be her stage name before she officially kicked off her career as a singer.
In 1989, she released her first album “Oyounak Amari”, whose songs like "Awraqi El Adima" grew popular among audiences. She broke through with the song “Law Hata Hayerfodny El Alam” from her second album, "Ya Farha Helly", in 1990 and “Bahibak, Bahibak”, “Esaalo El Zorouf” from her fourth album, "Esaalo El Zorouf" in 1992.
In 1996, she released one of her best-selling and most popular albums, "Jabar", which included remakes of songs by legendary Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez. Her performances of “Jabar”, “Kamel El Awsaf” and “Hobbak Nar” remain widely appreciated.
Ghofran found her way to audiences again in 2005 with her most popular and successful song, "Ashalhalk", which is considered to be her signature song. The song was released as the lead single from her album, "Akter Min Aey Waqit". Despite the impact and huge success of the song, Rotana insisted that the album didn't do well on the charts, forcing Ghofran to sue to the record label and eventually cut ties with them.
In 2006, she decided to independently produce her own music and released a song titled "Men Hena Wa Rayeh", whose music video was directed by her then-husband, Anas Do'ya.
Ghofran announced that she would be experimenting different and new music genres in an album that she had prepared for release in 2008. However, after her daughter, Hiba al-Akkad, and her friend, were brutally murdered later that year, she put off the album and released it in June, 2009, with a song titled "El Garh Mn Naseeby," in dedication her late daughter. The album, whose title was the same, had moderate success amidst controversies accusing Ghofran of using her daughter's case to promote the album.
In 2013, she released her most recent album to date, "Ahlamy", and took a break from the music scene.
Ghofran returned to the music scene with a single titled "Jabni L'ghram" in 2018.[3]
In 2020, Ghofran intended to comeback to the music scene and thus recorded a song titled "Ya Masa' El Louz" and filmed a music video for it with director Mohammad Anees.[4] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the single was never released.
In 2023, she said in a TV interview that the reason behind her hiatus from music was because of her health,[5] noting that she fails to express her anger. A few months later, she released a song titled "Ana Keda Agbany."
Ghofran was married five times and is the mother of two daughters.
In the early 80s, she married Egyptian producer Ibrahim Al-Akkad, with whom she had her late daughter, Hiba, before they separated. She then married Iraqi singer Fouad Masoud, with whom she had a daughter named Nagham. She later married businessmen Ismail Khurshid, Adham Mohammad and divorced them. In 2005, she married director Anas Do'ya, who was 15 years younger than her and divorced him in 2007. Ghofran married Murad Abu Al-Ainayn in 2008 and the couple got divorced in 2015.[6]
On November 27, 2008, Ghofran's daughter, Hiba, 23, and her Saudi friend, Nadine Khaled Gamal, were found by Nadine's fiance, stabbed in the latter's apartment in Al Nada complex in Sixth of October City's Sheikh Zayed district in a case that garnered media and public attention. Al Akkad's fiance, Ali Essam Al-Din, arrived at the scene of the crime after his dying fiance called him. He then reported the crime to the police[7] and rushed his fiance to the hospital, where she later died.
Police said that the murderer was a blacksmith, who entered Gamal's apartment with the intention of stealing money. In 2010, Mahmoud Al Issawi was sentenced to death,[8] and the capital punishments took place at the Wadi al-Natrun prison in 2014.[9]