Al-Atrash was born in 1910, in
Al-Qurayya, in southern Syria to the
Druze princely
al-Atrash family who fought the French colonial army. His father was Syrian and his mother was Lebanese. As a young child, al-Atrash emigrated with his mother and siblings to
Egypt, escaping the French occupation. Later, they were naturalized by the Egyptian government as citizens. Farid's mother sang and played the Oud, which spurred his musical interest at an early age. As a child and young adult, al-Atrash sang within school events. He studied at Egypt's
music conservatory and became an apprentice of the famous Egyptian composer
Riad Al Sunbati. In the 1930s, al-Atrash began his professional singing career by working for privately owned Egyptian radio stations. Eventually, he was hired as an oud player for the national radio station and later as a singer. His sister,
Asmahan, was also a talented singer, and for a while they worked together. In 1941, they starred in their first successful movie
Intisar a l-Shabab (انتصار الشباب –
The Triumph of Youth, 1941), in which Farid himself composed all the music. ==Family==