Farid al-Atrash
After graduating from preparatory school, he joined the King Fuad I Institute of Music in Cairo, but he gave up his studies two years later to work in the nightclub of sisters Ratiba and Ensaf Rushdie. Hired away by Badia Masabni’s music hall, he met luminaries there such as Farid al-Atrash, Mohamed Abdel Mottaleb, and Mahmoud al-Sharif, with whom he collaborated on composing and singing for sketches and revues. He took the radio exam in 1938 at the age of 20, failing a year after Al-Atrash had succeeded. Al-Sharif’s success going the composing route first led Fawzi to choose that approach.