BEIRUT  — Famed Lebanese singer and actress Sabah, whose seven-decade career made her one of the Arab world's best-known entertainers, died on Wednesday at the age of 87, state media announced.

 

Lebanon's National News Agency gave no immediate cause of death. Born Jeanette Gergi Feghal in the small Lebanese village of Bdadoun, Sabah produced more than 3,000 songs and appeared in more than 90 films.

 

She brought out her first song in 1940, while her parallel screen career began three years later in Egypt, the centre of the Arabic film industry.

 

She held Egyptian, Jordanian and US citizenship as well as Lebanese, and continued to perform and make television appearances into her 80s. She was nicknamed "shahroura," Arabic for "singing bird" and "the Sabbouha," a diminutive for "Sabah" by millions of fans across the Middle East. — Agencies