Umm Kulthum

Who is Umm Kulthum?

Umm Kulthum was an Egyptian singer, songwriter, and cultural icon often called Kawkab al-Sharq (Star of the East). Born in a village in the Nile Delta as the daughter of a village imam, she learned to sing by memorizing religious recitations her father taught to her brother. Disguised as a boy in her early performances, she rose from rural roots to become the most celebrated performer in the Arab world. Her monthly Thursday-night radio concerts, broadcast from Cairo beginning in the 1930s, brought much of the Arab world to a standstill. Renowned for her extraordinary vocal power, emotional depth, and improvisational mastery, she performed epic songs such as Enta Omri, Al-Atlal, and Ghannili Shwaya. She collaborated with leading composers and poets including Mohammed Abdel Wahab and Ahmed Rami. Her death in Cairo in 1975 prompted one of the largest funerals in Egyptian history, with millions filling the streets.

Sources: Virginia Danielson, The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century (1997) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry 'Umm Kulthum'