Samira Said was born and raised in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. She began singing at the age of 9 and she was discovered on a music program on Royal Moroccan TV, “Mawaheb,” alongside another popular singer, Aziza Jalal, when she was 13. She was quickly recognized as a young prodigy. She began singing professionally, encouraged by her family and backed up by important people in the Moroccan music scene like Al Rashdi and others.
Samira represented the Kingdom of Morocco in the Eurovision Song Contest singing ‘Bitaqat Khub’, a song that was a messenger of peace in the midst of Arab-Israeli tensions in their heyday. But this song didn’t win. Thriving in the Moroccan music scene, Samira decided to turn her past failure into a constructive experience. Already an authority in the Moroccan music scene and with good personal savings, Samira Bensaid traveled to Egypt, the epicentre of art and Arab songs in the pre-oil era. There, she started another chapter of her singing and artistic career.
Samira connected with the Arab singer Abdul Halim Hafez and Abdul Wahhab, to finally meet Baligh Hamdi. Her financial status also made her transition to Egypt a smooth one. In Egypt, she could chose the right composers for her songs. But her transition to Egypt was welcomed with some unease amongst the Moroccan public. She stayed a regular visitor to Moroccan music festivals and sung fully in Egyptian.
