Sabah acted alongside Dagher in her first movie, El-Qalb Luh Wahid (The Heart Has Its Reasons), released in 1945, which brought her regional fame.

Throughout her music career, Sabah recorded over 3,000 songs, collaborating with numerous renowned Egyptian composers, including the late Mohammed Abdel Wahab.

[18] She specialized in the Lebanese folk tradition known as mawwāl, and among her most famous songs were "Zay el-Assal" ("Your Love is Like Honey on my Heart") and "Akhadou el-Reeh" ("They Took the Wind").

[3] Known for her youthful spirit and vibrant performances, she became a symbolic figure of the "belle époque" and the "joie de vivre" in the Levant and the Arab world.

The accompanying video, which pays tribute to Sabah as "the notorious diva", received significant airplay on Arabic music channels.

[citation needed] In 2010, Sabah retired from public life due to health reasons, which resulted in paralysis affecting one of her arms and legs.

[3] After selling her house in Hazmieh, which she felt as "too big and cold for only one person", Sabah relocated to the nearby Hotel Comfort in Baabda, Mount Lebanon, a hillside city with views of Beirut and the Mediterranean Sea.

Following her death, her hairdresser and husband Joseph Gharib shared in an interview that Sabah had a fondness for wearing red lipstick during her final days.

During the funeral mass, Sabah's coffin, draped in a flag, was placed near the altar alongside a large photograph of the singer during her younger years.

[25] The TV drama Al Shahrourah, based on Sabah's life, aired during Ramadan in 2011,[26] with actress and singer Carole Samaha portraying her.

[27] Months before her passing, Lebanese journalist Rima Njeim hosted a live TV episode on MTV Lebanon honoring Sabah.

[citation needed] In 2015, graffiti artists Halwani and the brothers Omar and Mohammad Kabbani created monumental murals on buildings in Beirut to commemorate Sabah.

These artworks celebrated her for challenging gender-based and other social taboos, and for offering an alternative to the dominant images of political leaders and their slogans in Lebanese culture.

Sabah appeared in six of the selected films, including "Love Street" (1959), "The Unmarried Mother" (1950), "Bolbol Afandi" (1946), "Soft Hands" (1964), "Leila Baka Feha Al Qamar" (1980), and "He Stole My Wife" (1954).