Kadim Al Sahir - Personal Life

Personal Life

His father worked in the local palace, and although his government wage did not make him a rich man, he raised ten children. The youngest of seven brothers, Kadim took a keen interest in classical music as a boy. He sat by the radio and learned to sing works by masters like Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Abdel Halim Hafez, Nazim Al Ghazali, and Fairuz. At age ten, he sold his bicycle to buy his first instrument, a guitar, but after a year of study on guitar, he switched to the oud, the principal composers' instrument in the Arab world. Kadim wrote his first song at twelve, a romantic piece in the classical style, composed for a girl he liked. He used to work with his father in early age after school to help the family . He excelled in his studies and entered the Teachers Institute where he graduated in 1978 and was appointed as a teacher in a school in Mousal. At age twenty-one he enrolled at the Baghdad Institute of Music where he studied for around 6 years. He got married at early age, and is currently divorced. He left his country Iraq in the early 90’s after the Gulf War and has found a home since in every Arab country. He is not settled yet in one country and moves mainly between Cairo, Dubai, Beirut and Paris. He has two sons, "Wisam Al Sahir" who is married, and "Omar Al Sahir." Kadim is also a grandfather to Wisam's daughter Sana.