Sarah Idan

Sarah Abdali Idan
Sarah Idan, December 2018
Born	Sarah Abdali Idan (1990-02-04) 4 February 1990 (age 31) Baghdad, Iraq
Height	5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
Title	Miss Universe Iraq 2017
Beauty pageant titleholder
Hair color	Light Brown
Eye color	Brown
Major competition(s)	Miss Universe Iraq 2017 (Winner) Miss Universe 2017 (Unplaced)

Sarah Abdali Idan (Arabic: سارة عيدان‎; born 4 February 1990) is an Iraqi-American model, television host, musician and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned as Miss Universe Iraq 2017 and represented Iraq at the Miss Universe 2017 pageant.

Early life[]

Idan was born and raised in Baghdad to parents who were from the provinces of Babylon and Qadisiyah. When she was 13, Sarah taught herself English by listening to western music. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Sarah temporarily moved with her family to neighbouring Syria fleeing the civil war but eventually returned to Iraq a few years later. Her proficiency in English gave her the opportunity to work as a linguist for the US military at the age of 18. The job allowed her to help her people and the US Government reduce the gap between the two cultures and gave her a good deal of experience in interacting with people from diverse backgrounds and high profile individuals at an early age. She later moved to the US and started working and going to school. Sarah graduated from Musicians Institute in performance arts in Los Angeles with emphasis on jazz and contemporary music. She describes herself as not very religious but more spiritual and a secular Muslim.^{[citation needed]}

Career[]

Music[]

In 2007, while living as a refugee in Syria, Idan attended a live concert of Enrique Iglesias in Damascus and realized that moment she wanted to be a musician. She met with Enrique and his band after the concert and became friend with pianist Michael Bluestein (member of the rock band Foreigner) whom she remained friends with through email. In 2014 they met again and performed together in a live jam in Los Angeles. Idan is a vocalist and can sing in English and Arabic.^[1]

After obtaining her vocal performance artist degree, she began writing music and performing in venues in Los Angeles. She wrote/composed and performed a song "Just for you" for the Egyptian movie Monkey Talks (El-Qird Beyitkallem). She performed numerous times on Egyptian TV from 2016-2017. She plays piano, guitar and harmonica and can sing in English, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Beauty pageants[]

Idan was crowned Miss Iraq in America in 2016.

Idan was crowned in Miss Universe Iraq 2017. She represented Iraq at the Miss Universe 2017 pageant in Las Vegas but did not place.^[2] She is the first Iraqi model to participate in the Miss Universe pageant in 45 years.^[3] In December 2017 she and her family were forced to flee Iraq due to outrage from many Iraqis over her posing for a photo with Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman.^[4]

Television[]

Starting January 2018 Sarah hosted an entertainment show with Indian TV channel WION world is one news.^[5]

Visit to Israel[]

In June 2018, Idan went to visit her friend Adar Gandelsman in Jerusalem. She toured in Mahane Yehuda Market where she was received warmly by the Israeli Jews of Iraqi origin.^[6] She described her visit by saying:^[7]

It actually felt weird — the people look like my people. And the city looks like Damascus, like Syria, and I've been there, so everything seems familiar to me.

Regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, she said:^[7]

I don't think Iraq and Israel are enemies. I think maybe the governments are enemies with each other, but there are a lot of Iraqi people who don't have a problem with Israel or with the Jewish people. There are a lot of Iraqi people on my side, and I believe they are happy I am here.

She is a supporter of Israel and believes the conflict is perpetuated by “the belief systems taught in Muslim countries, which are anti-Semitic“ and is reinforced by bias media.^[8]

References[]

External links[]

• Video and photo gallery at Miss Universe web site