Early career

Maddah was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He was raised by his uncle.

Maddah began singing in school concerts when he was student in Al-Taif. Abdul Rahman Khundaneh, one of Maddah's classmates, played the oud and became his accompanist. Since the two boys had to keep the oud at Maddah's house to hide it from Khundaneh's father, Maddah also learned to play the instrument.

In the mid-1950s, Maddah attended a wedding in Al-Taif that featured a selection of artists such as Tariq Abdul-Hakim, Abdullah Mohammed and Abdullah Morshidi. Maddah was astonished to see a concert with a full orchestra. At the concert, he was introduced to Abbas Fayegg Ghazzawi who was then a director at Radio Jeddah. Ghazzawi encouraged him to come to record his first songs. Maddah's first song is called "Wardak Ya Zarea Al Ward" (Grower of Roses, Arabic: وردك يا زارع الورد). The song was a success and was played on the radio daily in the mid-1950s.

In the 1960s, Talal Maddah became famous due to the birth of Saudi Arabia's official radio. Along with other artists like Muhammad Ali Sindi, Fawzi Mhasson and Abdullah Mohammed, he was one of the most popular singers of the era.

The Arab world

Gradually, his music was introduced to the rest of the Arab world after his songs were played in Cairo. Egyptian composers like Mohammed Abdel Wahab, Mohammed Al Mogy and Baligh Hamdi began to write songs for him. In 1976, he had his first pan-Arab hit with "Muqadir".^[2] Over the course of his long career, Maddah collaborated with many composers, including Ibrahim Raafat, Gamal Salama, Tariq Abdul Hakim, Abu Bakr Salem Belfkih, Sami Ihsan and Mohammed Shafiq. He also discovered and trained fellow singer Abadi al Johar.^[3]