The French president had tried it all before: rebuking his counterpart, cajoling ministers, withholding aid and imploring the Lebanese ruling class to change its ways in order to save the country.
This time Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut with a different approach – a visit to one of the country’s most unifying figures. His first port of call was to the home of the illustrious singer, Fairouz, whose songs of loss and lament have been a soundtrack to Lebanese life for more than 50 years.
The optics were straightforward; Lebanon has far more to offer than an incorrigible ruling class. A country with such a culture and heritage should be recognised, as should its living legends. There is perhaps no one else in Lebanon more celebrated than the 85-year-old singer, whose name and voice draw instant recognition even in its most conservative of corners.
Fairouz’s songs echoed across the frontlines of the civil war. They were played throughout bustling Beirut restaurants in the halcyon decades before and in homes and cafes throughout the postwar years. Right across the Middle East, she remains perhaps the most distinctive female voice, where many of her repertoire of 1,000 songs are instantly familiar.
Macron arrived with quite the gift – a Legion of Honour, France’s highest award. “I told her everything that she represented to me, of a Lebanon that we love and that many are expectant of, a nostalgia that many have,” he said.
Born Nouhad Haddad in 1935, Fairouz is rarely seen in public any more. Photos of the meeting show her wearing a Covid visor, beaming at her guest. She did not release a statement, but a post on her official Twitter account was liked, or retweeted tens of thousands of times.
The French leader has grown clearly impatient with Lebanese officials who have stonewalled efforts to introduce reforms – a precondition for financial aid that Lebanon desperately needs.
A call on a cultural icon was at least partly an attempt to reset efforts that have so far proven fruitless, even as Lebanon withers under cascading crises that threaten its very existence.
On Tuesday, 100 years to the day since France jointly proclaimed the birth of a Greater Lebanon, Macron continued with his heritage theme, planting a native cedar tree, which has become the county’s emblem.
Once he travelled down the mountain, his waltz with reluctant Lebanese leaders began again.
