Umm Kulthum: The Star Of The East

Umm Kulthum – a dearly adored Egyptian singer and actress – was born in a Nile delta village to an imam and his wife. Throughout her career, she mesmerized Arab audiences across different nations with her unique vocal range and enchanting style. 

During her youth, Umm Kulthum’s father supplemented his income by singing religious songs around their hometown. He taught her to recite the Quran, and upon noticing her astonishing talent, he invited her to join their family ensemble and began to sing various religious songs around the village. Due to past social norms at the time, she would be dressed in male clothing in order to avoid the scrutiny that came with having a girl on stage, as it was highly stigmatised. Freed from the limitations of her gender, her voice shone, and she attracted the interest of multiple notable musicians, many of whom invited her to pursue her singing career in Cairo. 

In the early 1920’s, Umm Kulthum moved to Cairo– a lucrative hub for the entertainment industry within the middle eastern region. Despite being adored for her exquisite sound, she was heavily mocked for her old-fashioned and village-like attire and behaviour. To combat this, she began to carefully curate her image. She did so by studying poetry and music from accomplished performers and writers. On top of that, she mirrored the etiquette of the ladies of Cairo’s elite. She did so subtly whilst still underlining her pride in her modest origins. Some of Egypt’s most distinguished poets and songwriters had written for her. By the end of the 1920’s, Umm Kulthum had made quite the name for herself, becoming one of the best-paid and most highly distinguished musicians in the Middle East. Her success in her commercial recordings gradually bled into different avenues of the entertainment business, including radio and television. 

“My grandparents would recount tales whereby they depicted images of streets that had been almost completely vacated during her broadcasted concerts, as people all across the city would rush home from their day jobs in order to tune into her concerts.”

Umm Kulthum is often regarded as social and cultural phenomenon. Her success was unprecedented for a female in that era, as she broke gender norms and took the Arab world by storm. As a child, I was told countless stories about Umm Kulthum by my grandparents and great grandparents. She was somewhat of a household staple across Arab nations. On the first Thursday of every month, she performed a live concert, which was publicly broadcasted on the radio. My grandparents would recount tales whereby they depicted images of streets that had been almost completely vacated during her broadcasted concerts, as people all across the city would rush home from their day jobs in order to tune into her concerts. Although her performances consisted of just three or four songs, they would go on for almost five hours. During her performance, her audience would ask her to repeat the same live over and over as her creativity was boundless She would use an improvisatory technique, which was common in classical Arabic singing, whereby she would repeat a single line multiple times whilst altering her vocals, emotion, and intensity each time. This technique was said to engulf her audience in an extremely euphoric and ecstatic state which was dubbed as Tarab. By doing so, she offered her audience various renditions of the same song, allowing them to have a unique experience every time. 

During the 1940’s and the 1950’s, Umm Kulthum began to shift towards more populist music. Following the fall of the monarchy and the Egyptian revolution, she began to sing in favor of the Egyptian president at the time, Gamal Abdel Nasser. A popular tale told in Egypt was that when Umm Kulthum was taken off the air in 1952, Nasser was baffled and asked for her to be put back on, saying “What are you, crazy? Do you want Egypt to turn against us?” She maintained her public image as a pious, patriotic Egyptian woman. Not only was she an extremely talented artist, she was also a benevolent woman. Following the Six-Day War of June 1967, Umm Kulthum took it upon herself to tour various Arab nations, donating the proceeds of her concerts to the Egyptian government. 

 Decades later, Umm Kulthum still maintains her status as one of the Arab world’s most distinguished artists. Her performances were one of a kind in the way they touched her listeners. She adeptly combined themes of love and longing with a subtle patriotic rhetoric. Commonly referred to as ‘Kawkab Al Sharq’ (Star of the East) and ‘The fourth Pyramid’, Umm Kulthum was a highly influential icon not only in Egypt, but across various Middle Eastern countries and her memory lives in the hearts of Arabs all around the world.