The death of Simon Asmar and the career of his artistic and private life

The death of Simon Asmar came as news that shook the artistic community, as the star maker bid farewell to the stars today, at the age of 76, after conflict with disease.

With the death of Simon Asmar, Lebanon has turned the page of a creator who made an entire generation of artists.

Simon Asmar is gone, but his mark will remain in the world of art and the small screen. He is the one who imprinted the golden age of Lebanese art with an exceptional imprint. He leaves the land, leaving behind a legacy and history of the bright pages that are imprinted in the sentiments of generations that will miss a look and craftsmanship unlike any other.

Simon Asmar holds the title of “star maker” par excellence. One of the most famous programs that opened his eyes to him was the “Studio Art” program, which was shown first on Channel 7, but then stopped due to the outbreak of the civil war.

Simon Asmar’s imprint, which was established in the program, met with an unusual interaction with the Lebanese audience, especially after graduating a batch of the most important artists in Lebanon, such as Magda El Roumi, Mona Maraachli, Walid Tawfik, Abdel Karim El Shaar, Nohad Fattouh and others, so the offer came from the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation “LBC” to re-inject this A large number of talents and artists showed the same program on its screen, an offer that was approved by Asmar, especially since he was close to his home, to repeat the glory of graduating artists and media professionals who are in the first row, Lebanese and Arab, achieving stardom and fame such as: Nawal Al Zoghbi, Wael Kfoury, Assi El Hellani. , Ragheb Alama, Abdel Ghani Tlais, Moein Sherif, Elissa, Maya Diab, Myriam Fares, Nishan, Giselle Khoury, Ziad Burji, Maya Nasri, Fares Karam, Nidal Al Ahmadia, Abdo Yaghi, Rabie El Khouli, Mary Suleiman, Zain El Omar, Nicolas Saadeh Nakhla, Jean Marie Riachi, Ghassan Saliba, Lilian Andrews, Rudy Rahma and others...

Asmar introduced us to the most prominent media figures who presented the program. In 1972, journalist Sonia Beiruti presented the program, as well as Madeleine Tabar in 1980, Claude Khoury in 1988, Hiam Abu Shedid in 1992, and after them the former Miss Lebanon Norma Naoum in 2011.

“My name is Simon Asmar, and nothing changes.”

Simon Asmar succeeded in achieving his inherent mission of transferring the artistic center of gravity from Egypt to Lebanon, and the television stations witnessed their choice of Lebanon as a center for filming the most important programs, so that Asmar's rosary was repeated in the dozens of ideas he presented on the most important stations. He founded an artistic movement that the Lebanese lacked, especially after the civil war.

Asmar adopted a path in his working life on the basis of “I do not support people stemming from my prior knowledge that the person does not deserve support,” and artistic wars erupted, especially after the establishment of the “Art Studios” office, which prompted some artists to rise up against Asmar, suggesting that the technical contract signed with them He was “suffocating” the artist and had to hand over his future to Al Asmar for a long time, but this statement, from his point of view, was interpreted as having a more knowledgeable view of the concept of stardom: “I helped everyone and I was after them to succeed.”

Simon Asmar studied “star industry” in France for four years, which included everything related to the arts, electronics, sound engineering and preparing artists before he was “caught” by “Lebanon TV” at the time, and embarked on a star-making journey. He is one of the few directors at that time who passionately loved a field in which he awakened the attention to detail that includes clothes, the way he walks and behaves in front of the camera, the speech, the hairstyle, the quality of the song, the way it is announced and mediated, and about the singer, down to the name of the artist that he changed and replaced with the name of an artist. He succeeded in taking the throne of television directing, because he believed that “directing is not just “pinning buttons”, but rather it is a high sense of everything we see through the lens of the camera.”

He married Nada Kreidi in 1977 and they had three children: Wassim, Karim, and Bashir. He always considered that the best times he could spend was with Nada and his three children. He built for his children “houses close and connected to my house, so that they would stay by our side, we could see them “if not every day,” at least once a week.” He was written to testify to the great joy of his son Karim last May.

In one of the interviews, Asmar is pleased to reveal that he was wiping dust during his work at Lebanon TV, expressing his pride in his past, and said in the “The Second Office” episode on “MTV”: “Far and broken, but my positive spirit is preserved… I will not be upset or upset.” You are free".

Asmar received more than twenty awards in Lebanon and around the world, including the “Best TV Creator” in 1994 and the “Sydney Key” award in Australia in the same year. Encyclopedia presented him with the International Year Award in 1997 and in 2003, and on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of his services in the field of art, he was honored by the Committees to Commemorate the Giants of the East and the "Friends of Simon Asmar".

In 2013, an Internal Security Forces patrol arrested him in implementation of an arrest warrant issued against him by the investigative judge in Mount Lebanon for the offense of issuing checks without balance for a large amount amounting to 500 thousand US dollars. Shortly after his arrest, the security authorities investigated him on suspicion of involvement in a murder, when his family issued a statement confirming his innocence, noting at the time that it "will not enter into any argument of any kind with anyone by responding to random accusations, because defaming any person without evidence." Thabit, it is not a brave act, it is a cowardly act.”

Asmar spent 10 months in prison, rested for a short period and returned to his activity, which was not welcomed this time by many critics, especially after his experience in “Celebrity Duets”, which was considered a signature of his career end.

However, after this dark period, he confirmed: “I have not set up a world. My house is worth $6 million, and after it was sold, he paid my debts,” revealing that a businessman helped him pay part of his debts, “and I was given checks and I couldn’t pay them.”

Asmar dedicated his life to come up with new creations and ideas for programs that would not have been successful if they did not bear his name. The late said in a previous interview with “An-Nahar” in response to whether he was bored after all these years of continuous work: “It is as if after me I am blurred, I work as if my first day, and as long as my health is good, the enthusiasm is there, especially since television is itself a permanent renewal.” . And about the experience of the disease, he said: “You taught me to live my life without looking back, you taught me the will to live and live ... and not to wait for anything from anyone ... “No one is compelled by one,” to repeat after each setback: “cuts and broths,” but this time.” What broth.”

May God have mercy on you, Simon Asmar, you are gone and your mark will remain in the world of art forever