Umm Kulthūm

Abstract

Umm Kulthum was probably the most famous singer in the Arab world during the 20th century, and among the most highly regarded for her command of poetic texts and the historic Arab musical system brought together in affective performances, working closely with accomplished poets and composers of her day. She became a public figure in general, certainly in the later decades of her life, when she became closely associated with then president Jamal ‘Abd al-Nasir of Egypt and spoke frequently about her love for her country and its people. Born to a poor village family in the Egyptian delta, her background resembled that of millions of her compatriots. She was raised in an agrarian setting. Her father was the imam of the local mosque. Like many children of her generation, she attended Qurʾan school (kuttāb), which was among the few educational opportunities for lower-class children under the then British occupation. She learned to sing by mimicking her father and her brother, who sang religious songs for weddings and special occasions to make additional money. Her strong voice drew great attention. She moved to Cairo in about 1923 to advance her career. Thanks to her performances and commercial recordings, her career took off, and by the late 1920s she had become wildly successful. Films and live broadcasts followed in the 1930s. In the 1940s, like many Egyptians, she began to express the shared dismay at the continued British presence during World War II, the corruption of the Egyptian government, and the war in Palestine. After the Egyptian Revolution in 1952, she, again like many of her cohort, expressed support for the revolutionary government in song and speech and, later, for ‘Abd al-Nasir himself. Her musical style changed over the years as she continually cultivated new listeners. Owing to the wide dissemination of her recordings, the powerful Egyptian radio-broadcasting capacity, and her touring, she became well known and popular throughout the Arab world. After the Egyptian defeat in the 1967 war with Israel, she launched a successful series of benefit concerts designed to replenish the Egyptian war department’s treasury. When she died in 1975, it was said that her funeral was bigger than ‘Abd al-Nasir’s had been. Probably owing to her stature as a public figure, most publications about Umm Kulthum have been biographical in nature, as writers attempted to document her life, her social impact, and the reasons for her various successes. She rarely sought an audience outside the world of Arabic speakers, and she was little known in the West until the late 20th century, with the burgeoning interest in “world music.”