This is a diary introducing Oum Kalthoum, the most famous and legendary Arab singer of all time - a woman who's voice was so enchanting that Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt at the time, refused to hold his weekly news conferences at the same time her concerts were on the radio because he knew no one would be listening - Cairo would shut down when she sang live.
"Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt and the audience of Elvis and you have Umm Kulthum, the most accomplished singer of her century in the Arab world". Virginia Danielson
Oum Kalthoum was born in the Nile Delta in 1904. From an early age she showed musical prowess, with much of her earlier music consisting of Qur'anic chanting. Always humble and intensely nationalistic, Oum Kalthoum was quite careful throughout her life to maintain an image of piety and adherence to conservative Islamic and Egyptian values - something which no doubt aided her acceptance across the Arab and Muslim world. She was said to have been so devastated by Egypt's defeat in the 1967 war that she refused to leave her house for weeks. Yet amongst many Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews both in and outside of Israel she remains to this day a beloved figure - proving that music indeed crosses all barriers.
Oum Kalthoum's early career mainly consisted of religiously-inspired music backed by one or two instruments, such as the Kanun (Egyptian harp) or the Oud. It was only after she was introduced to Ahmad Rami, a well known Egyptian poet, that her music began to resemble what she is most famous for today - long, intense songs filled with universal themes of love, longing and loss - backed by a tahkt, which in Arabic means a full orchestra. Most of Oum Kalthoum's music was recorded live - in appearances which were broadcast across the Arab world.
Oum Kalthoum's music was known for driving its listeners into an ecstatic frenzy, particularly as the concerts would last far longer than expected, with Oum Kalthoum repeating parts of the song again and again to cheers from the crowd. This style of music is thought to descend from pre-Islamic times, when slave girls would sing rajaz poetry at weddings and to warriors on the battlefield. In this sense there is a continuum between the music of Oum Kalthoum and that which predates the Islamic invasions of North Africa after 600 AD.
Habib Hassan Touma explains: "Her performances often only approximately followed the fixed rhythmic-temporal organization of the melody. She would strip some melodic passages of their strict rhythmic form in order to repeat, vary, and paraphrase individual sections in an improvisatory way or transform the musical material more dramatically within the framework of traditional modal principles. Her presentation thus hovered between that which she performed and that which she created herself. The musical contrast between the familiar and fixed on the one side and the new, freely structured though related on the other creates, in general, a tension whose up and down evokes tarab in the listener. The emphasis of this contrast represents the most striking stylistic element of Umm Kulthum's artistry."
Perhaps her most beloved and well known piece of music is Inta Omri, a wonderful example of what made her such a beloved and important singer in the Arab world.
These are the lyrics to Inta Omri - in English:
Your eyes took me back to my days that are gone.
Whatever I saw before my eyes saw you was a wasted life.
How could they consider that part of my life?
With your light, the dawn of my life started.
How much of my life before you was lost?
It is a wasted past, my love.
My heart never knew happiness before you.
My heart never knew anything in life other than the taste of pain and suffering.
I started only now to love my life.
And started to worry that my life would run away from me.
Every happiness I was longing for before you.
My dreams they found it in the light of your eyes.
Oh my heart's life - You are more precious than my life.
Why I didn't meet your love a long time ago?
Whatever I saw before my eyes saw you was a wasted life..
How could they consider that part of my life?
You are my life that starts its dawn with your light.
The beautiful nights and the yearning and the great love.
From a long time ago the heart is holding for you.
Taste the love with me bit by bit from the kindness of my heart that is longing for the kindness of your heart.
Bring your eyes close so that my eyes can get lost in the life of your eyes.
Bring your hands so that my hands will rest in the touch of your hands.
My love, come, and enough.
What we missed is not little, oh love of my soul.
Whatever I saw before my eyes saw you was a wasted life.
How could they consider that part of my life?
You are my life that starts its dawn with your light.
You are more precious than my days.
You are more beautiful than my dreams.
Take me to your sweetness.
Take me away from the universe.
Far away, far away, me and you.
Far away, far away, alone.
With love, our days will awaken.
We spend the nights longing for each other.
I reconciled with days because of you.
I forgave the time because of you.
With you I forgot my pains.
And I forgot with you my misery.
Your eyes took me back to my days that are gone.
They taught me to regret the past and its wounds.
Whatever I saw before my eyes saw you was a wasted life.
How could they consider that part of my life?
You are my life that starts its dawn with your light.
This is my favorite Oum Kalthoum song of all time - Fakarouni - They Have Reminded Me.
Here is Oum Kalthoum in one of the few movies she made - Fatma
This is Oum Kalthoum working an audience and improvising in a concert in Rabat, Morocco (Thanks to Gracian for the video):
As Oum Kalthoum aged she began to experience health problems including kidney disease and a thyroid condition. She lived in the United States for a time where she received advanced medical care for her disease but she returned to Egypt in 1975 where she died.
Oum Kalthoum's funeral itself was an incredible event, attended by 4 million people, the largest funeral in the history of the Arab world up to today. The following videos show the extent of the mourning her death caused amongst the Egyptian people:
My experience with Oum Kalthoum's music began when I lived in Morocco. I picked up one of her tapes and became entranced by her music. To me my time living in Morocco and Oum Kalthoum's music are inextricably linked - I can sing Inta Omri and Fakarouni in their entirety, which always amazes Arab people when I do. I'm one of the few non-Arab people I know with knowledge of this incredible and amazing singer and what she means to so many people, decades after her death.
In closing I'll add this from her Wikipedia page:
Umm Kulthum is remembered in Egypt, the Middle East, and the Arab world as one of the greatest singers and musicians to have ever lived. It is difficult to accurately measure her vocal range at its peak, as most of her songs were recorded live, and she was careful not to strain her voice due to the extended length of her songs. Even today, she has retained a near-mythical status among young Egyptians. She is also notably popular in Israel among Jews and Arabs alike, and her records continue to sell about a million copies a year. In 2001, the Egyptian government opened the Kawkab al-Sharq (Star of the East) Museum in the singer's memory. Housed in a pavilion on the grounds of Cairo's Manesterly Palace, the collection includes a range of Umm Kulthum's personal possessions, including her trademark sunglasses and scarves, along with photographs, recordings, and other archival material.
If you'd like to learn more about Oum Kalthoum a movie was made, narrated by Omar Sharif called Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt, which does an incredible job of explaining her music, her origins and what she meant to Egyptians and to the Arab nation as a whole.