It was only yesterday that we reported singer Ruwaida Attiyeh owing her business manager a large sum of money, but it seems she ain’t the only one! Melhem Barakat borrowed $400 thousand from fellow Lebanese superstar Najwa Karam - why how generous of you Naj!
What’s the difference between Melhem and Ruwaida then? Well, Mr. Barakat has actually paid the generous songstress her money back, but not after a fight of his own.
The dispute originally came to life last year, when Melhem claimed that Nicola, accompanied by five men, barged into his home with weapons and threatened to kill him if he didn’t pay his sister her money back within 24 hours.
Najwa’s version of the story stated that Nicola had gone to see Melhem at the cottage where he was staying at the time, when an intense verbal fight broke out between the two. Melhem had then pointed a gun at Nicola, who managed to drop it onto the floor, and gave Melhem 24 hours to pay the money back.
But there’s more to the story. A formerly depressed Melhem had apparently told Najwa that he would drop all charges against Nicola if she were to make the amount owed by him $100K less - how very cheeky of you Mr. Barakat! We don’t know whether it was guilt or a general feeling of giving up on Melhem, Najwa agreed to his request.
According to the Middle East news portal, although the two are on speaking terms now, they’re not exactly friends, and will probably never be again.
