MSN > Entertainment > Biography

Nadine Labaki

Nadine Labaki is a lebanese actress and director. She is one of the well known directors in the Arabic music videos industry. Nadine is usually credited for bringing artists into the scene.

Labaki was born in Baabdet to Antoine, a telecommunications engineer, and her mother Antoinette, a homemaker.

She participated as a contestant in the televised talent show, Studio El Fan, in the early 90's in the "directing" category. For the competition, she directed a music video, Habeebi Ya, for an amateur singer called Carla. Carla is now a well known presenter in Rotana music channel's program, Rotana Café.

Her first video is believed to be Tayr El Gharam for the Lebanese artist Pascale Machaalani. Later on, she did another two videos for Noura Rahal. But these videos didn't draw much attention to Nadine the way her follow up one did with Katia Harb, and the song Ma Fina. Therefore, Ma Fina music video is officially considered as her first music video experience for Nadine.

Though the fact that Nadine has done Ma Fina before, her true groundbreaker was Nancy Ajram's video, Akhasmak Ah. The video took the story of Nancy as the waitress of a traditional Egyptian coffee shop. Where her work is to serve and entertain male customers. The video raised controversy, but Nadine justified her use of this character as one powerful yet attractive female figure.

Nadine has had huge successes later on with Nancy in specific, in videos like Ya Salam that portrays the life of a sad star, Lawn Ouyounak a magical wedding, and Inta Eih a heart-breaking drama in which she was able to show us Ajram's acting ability. The three videos gained huge popularity, and they were awarded as best music videos.

Nadine's sister, Caroline Labaki, worked as the usual executive producer of Labaki's videos. But after the huge surfacing Nadine had, Caroline decided to pursue her own independent music video directing career. Nadine's on a good relationship with her sister, and no feuds were witnessed between them.

In an interview aired on Future Television, both Nadine and Caroline stated that their passion for visual productions and directing is somehow derived from their uncle. They described the way he used to describe his directing visuals as if he just saw them.

Nadine also signed a Coca-Cola endorsement, where she does Coca-Cola Light commercials. Her other opponent in such endorsement is the Lebanese former model, TV presenter Rula Bahnaam. So far, Nadine did only one Coca-Cola Light TV commercial, and few promotion ads for the press.

She has also experienced acting three times. The most noted one is her in the Lebanese movie, Bosta.

Related news:

Bosta the first post-war Lebanese musical movie