Basic Facts
Born: c.1904, Tummay al-Zahayrah, Egypt
Died: February 3, 1975, Cairo, Egypt
Type of Performer: Singer
Genre: Arabic popular and traditional music
About Umm Kulthum
Umm Kulthum was born in 1904 in the Nile valley in Egypt. Her father was an imam and taught her to sing religious music alongside her brothers. To have a woman singing religious music was scandalous, so her father dressed her up as a boy. By the 1920s, she had developed a reputation as a talented performer, and the family moved to Cairo so she could pursue music. She had trouble finding her footing as a country girl in a big city, but she studied music and poetry and she learned to cultivate her image; she soon had record companies competing and negotiating over her. She was considered a master of the maqamat, the set of scales in Arabic music, and was known for her improvisation skills. A typical song could last nearly an hour, with concerts lasting for five.
In the 1940s, she turned her focus from religious music towards popular and populist music that captured the tensions the country felt under British rule. She was seen as both the educated, refined woman and the peasant daughter. She starred in six films, and for nearly 40 years she broadcast a concert live on the first Thursday of each month. Over her 60 year career, she recorded over 300 songs. Her importance to Egyptian culture, and her status as a pan-Arabic symbol more broadly, cannot be overstated. She continued to perform until 1970, and she died in 1975 of liver failure. Her funeral drew over 4 million Egyptian mourners. Her popularity in the Arabic world has persisted beyond her death, and she has been cited as an influence for Western musicians including Bob Dylan, Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin), Beyonce, Shakira, and Mariah Carey.
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Enta Oumry
El Atlal
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