Wadih El Safi
By then, cultural life in Tyre had been severely affected by armed conflict as well. In 1975, the commercial "Festivals de Tyr" – organised by Maha al-Khalil Chalabi, the daughter of feudal landlord and politician Kazem al-Khalil – were supposed to debut but stopped at the outbreak of the Civil War. Some cinemas were damaged by Israeli bombardment in 1982 and all of them eventually closed down, the last ones in 1989: the Hamra and the AK2000.In the mid-nineties though, first the idea of a commercial Tyre International Festival was revived. It has been organised since then annually in the ancient site of the Roman hippodrome, featuring international artists like Elton John and Sarah Brightman, as well as Lebanese stars Wadih El Safi, Demis Roussos, Kadim Al-Saher, Melhem Barakat, Julia Boutros, and Majida El Roumi, the daughter of Halim el-Roumi. The pop-singer Layal Abboud was born and raised in the Tyrian village of Kniseh. She has returned occasionally to perform in Tyre as well.