Since her passing away in 1975, there have been several tributes to the iconic Egyptian singer in the form of books, films, television shows, art exhibits, and even a holographic show that travels across the country.
The West End musical Umm Kulthum & The Golden Era, which is based on the life of the singer, had its premiere in front of an international audience at Dubai Opera in the previous year.
In spite of all that is already available, Egyptian scholar Ahmed Youssef Ali has managed to come up with something novel to add in his most recent work.
Umm Kulthum: Poetry and Singing is a new perspective on the singer that was introduced at the Cairo International Book Fair a month ago and published by the Arabic Language Centre of DCT Abu Dhabi. It is both invigorating and, at times, revelatory.
The Arabic title provides a perspective that is both approachable and scholarly on Umm Kulthum’s career, while at the same time dispelling some of the misconceptions that have been perpetuated about her life and work. It does this by avoiding the widely reported personal and sensationalised details of Umm Kulthum’s life.
One of the reasons for Umm Kulthum’s popularity was that acclaimed poet Ahmed Rami wrote and supplied her with lyrical arrangements that were both exquisite and meaningful. Ali argues that during their lengthy creative partnership, she was not the secondary partner but rather the primary one.
According to what he shared with The National, “They collaborated on more than 200 tunes.” “However, the notion that Umm Kulthum spent her whole life under his shadow is untrue, and it deprives her of the autonomy she deserves.
“She always made the ultimate judgements on what songs she wanted to take, and that was based on what she wanted to portray with each piece,” says the narrator of the song.
In control of the situation
This sense of autonomy can be traced all the way back to 1923, when she first started working in the professional world.
In this book, Umm Kulthum explains how she carefully picked which portions of prose — from traditional Arabic and religious poetry written by Al Mutanabbi and Ahmed Shawqi in the 10th and 19th centuries — she chose to sing in concerts. The poems were written by Al Mutanabbi and Ahmed Shawqi.
Ali contends that the elitism that existed in the Egyptian music business at the time was another factor that contributed to the proliferation of that erroneous notion.
Despite the fact that Umm Kulthum hailed from a modest background, her fame and popularity enabled her to perform at some of the most important cultural salons in Egypt, and she was honoured by significant political figures from the surrounding area.
She was nurtured in a pious family; her father was the imam of the local mosque and a spiritual singer. Fatima Ibrahim Al Sayyid Al Baltagi was born in 1898 in a remote town north east of Cairo. Her name at birth was Fatima Ibrahim Al Sayyid Al Baltagi.
She began singing at an early age, but in order to participate in public concerts with the family band, she had to pretend to be a guy so that she could wear a disguise.
Ali believes that her formative years, despite the fact that she did not have an official education, were crucial to the expansion of her knowledge.
“Umm Kulthum herself said that she had four instructors,” he explains. “[T]hey were all women.” “The Quran, which led to her love of traditional Arabic poetry, was at the head of that education. In second place was her father, and in third and fourth place were the poets Ahmed Shawqi and Ahmed Rami.”
Her deep and abiding affection for the Arabic language shines through in all of her artistic endeavours, from reciting and reading the Quran to singing.
Ali explains, “And it is truly the core of what the book is about.”
Because so much has been written about Umm Kulthum, there is not a lot of information available on her greatest love, which was for the language in all of its forms.
Through the use of the book, Ali intends to communicate this message to a new generation of fans of Umm Kulthum.
“A lot of young listeners of today identify her music with a feeling of nostalgia, which is OK because it was a fantastic moment culturally,” he adds. “[T]hat’s fine because it was a wonderful period.”
On the other hand, this is not how people listened to Umm Kulthum back when she was alive. They were so taken with her flow of phrase and the rich and sumptuous poetry that she had to offer.
One of these admirers was none other than the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Founding Father of the United Arab Emirates. He was the one who formally asked her to perform in the nation’s capital on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of his accession as Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
Egyptian singer Marwa Nagy performed some of the songs that were featured in that Abu Dhabi show. The show was held in a newly constructed concert hall that is now known as the Al Nahyan Stadium, which is located behind Al Wahda Mall. This performance was a part of the official launch of Umm Kulthum: Poetry and Singing.
Ali explains that he was not shocked that Umm Kulthum accepted Sheikh Zayed’s offer right away by pointing out that she kept herself up to date on current happenings.
“She was a fervent advocate of Arab nationalism,” he recalls. “She was an Arab nationalist.” “She had a deep knowledge and comprehension of what Sheikh Zayed and the UAE were striving to do at that time,” we were told. “She was extremely well read and educated about the area.”