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GEORGES MOUSTAKI turns 70 on 6 May, an event he will celebrate in the country of his birth, Egypt, and with two concerts, the first in Alexandria, tomorrow, at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the second in Cairo, on 3 May, at the Salaheddin Citadel. Together with Youssef Chahine, he is also the guest of honour of Evoking the Spirit, Recreating the City: Alexandrianism in the 21st Century, a roundtable which opened yesterday at Bibliotheca Alexandrina and runs till tomorrow.

Born Youssef Mustacchi in Alexandria in 1934 to Greek parents who ran one of the city's most popular bookshops, Moustaki moved to Paris in 1951 where he soon met Georges Brassens, who encouraged him to write songs. His career took off following a 1958 introduction to Edith Piaf, who commissioned Moustaki to write songs for her as well as conducting an affair with him. If the latter was brief the former collaboration was more enduring, resulting in one of Piaf's most famous songs, Milord.

Moustaki's career as a singer, rather than composer, was kick-started by Le métèque, released as a single in 1969 and which proved an immediate hit.

He subsequently combined his performing and songwriting careers, composing for singers such as Barbara, Reggiani and Dalida, while putting out albums under his own name at an average of one every two years.

"The Alexandria of my childhood," he recalls in his 2000 memoir Fils du Brouillard, "was a miniature world, containing all races, all religions. So much so wherever I go I never feel like a foreigner because I find always a reference to Alexandria, in the languages heard, or the smells breathed, or the colours absorbed."

See Listings for concert and Bibliotheca Alexandrina roundtable details