Global Hit – Lebanese divas

Lebanon is most often in the news in American newspapers as a place of terror attacks or fighting in the streets.

But in the Arab world, Lebanon is known as the place where sexy talent is born.

In fact, Lebanese divas are one of the small Mediterranean country’s biggest exports.

The World’s Aaron Schachter explores the world of Lebanese divas.

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The highway leading north from Beirut is plastered with billboards bearing the likenesses, and cleavage, of, among others, Melissa, Elissa, Larissa, Myriam, Latifa, Asmara, Asalla, Nancy Ajram, and the queen of them all, Haifa.

Haifa Wehbe is a former model and Miss Lebanon runner-up turned singing-superstar, and is, quite literally, the ideal that many women here aspire to. Plastic surgery’s a big industry here, and reports say many women walk into surgery and say “make me look like Haifa.” One of her most popular songs is called “I’m Haifa.”

The song, as you might imagine, doesn’t say a whole lot but that sigh and giggle, dear listener, have made the hearts of millions beat faster.