Yusuf Omar

Yusuf Omar was born in the historic Bab al-Shaykh quarter of Baghdad and immersed himself in the oral transmission of the Iraqi Maqam under Muhammad al-Qubanchi. He became the chief maqam singer of Iraqi National Television and Radio, documenting hundreds of hours of irreplaceable musical heritage.

Omar possessed a voice of astonishing depth, dramatic intensity, and breath control, allowing him to navigate the most difficult modulations (waslat) and rare subsidiary branches of the classical maqam system. He is universally remembered as the unyielding guardian of authentic Baghdadi vocal traditions in the twentieth century.