39 Facts About Umm Kulthum

Umm Kulthum was an Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Immensely popular throughout the Middle East and beyond, Kulthum is a national icon in her native Egypt; she has been dubbed "The Voice of Egypt" and "Egypt's Fourth Pyramid".

Umm Kulthum's father, Ibrahim El-Sayyid El-Beltagi, was a rural imam, while her mother, Fatmah El-Maleegi, was a housewife.

Umm Kulthum learned how to sing by listening to her father teach her older brother, Khalid.

Umm Kulthum's grandfather was a well-known reader of the Qur'an and she remembered how the villagers used to listen to him when he recited the Qur'an.

Umm Kulthum subsequently joined as a supporting voice, initially just repeating what the others sang.

Umm Kulthum was invited on several occasions to the home of Amin Beh Al Mahdy, who taught her to play the oud, a type of lute.

Umm Kulthum developed a close relationship with Rawheya Al-Mahdi, Amin's daughter, and became her closest friend.

Umm Kulthum even attended Rawheya's daughter's wedding, although she usually preferred not to appear in public, outside of her performances.

El Mahdeya's friend, who worked as an editor at Al-Masra, suggested several times that Umm Kulthum had married one of the guests who frequently visited her household; this affected her conservative father so much that he decided that the whole family should return to their village.

Umm Kulthum maintained a tightly managed public image, which undoubtedly added to her allure.

In 1934, Umm Kulthum sang for the inaugural broadcast of Radio Cairo, the state station.

Umm Kulthum's influence kept growing and expanding beyond the artistic scene: the reigning royal family would request private concerts and even attend her public performances.

Some claim that Umm Kulthum's popularity helped Nasser's political agenda.

Umm Kulthum sang many songs in support of Nasser, with whom she developed a close friendship.

Umm Kulthum was known for her continuous contributions to works supporting the Egyptian military efforts.

However, Umm Kulthum was not stylistically influenced by opera, and she sang solo for most of her career.

Umm Kulthum's songs were virtuosic, as befitted her newly trained and very capable voice, and romantic and modern in musical style, feeding the prevailing currents in Egyptian popular culture of the time.

Umm Kulthum worked extensively with texts by romance poet Ahmad Rami and composer Mohammad El-Qasabgi, whose songs incorporated European instruments such as the violoncello and double bass, as well as harmony.

Umm Kulthum had abstained from singing Qasabgi's music since the early 1940s.

Umm Kulthum was Umm Kulthum's only serious competitor before her death in a car accident in 1944.

Simultaneously, Umm Kulthum started to rely heavily on a younger composer who joined her artistic team a few years earlier: Riad Al-Sunbati.

In 1946, Umm Kulthum defied all odds by presenting a religious poem in classical Arabic: Salou Qalbi ["Ask My Heart"], written by Ahmad Shawqi and composed by Ryad Al Sunbati.

At the peak of her career, in 1950, Umm Kulthum sang Sonbati's composition of excerpts of what Ahmad Rami considered the accomplishment of his career: the translation from Persian into classical Arabic of Omar Khayyam's quatrains.

When Umm Kulthum sang live, the duration of each song was not fixed as she would repeat at length verses requested by the audience.

Umm Kulthum's concerts used to broadcast from 9:30 PM on Thursday until the early morning hours on Friday.

Around 1965, Umm Kulthum started collaborating with composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab.

Umm Kulthum's songs took on a more soul-searching quality in 1967 following the defeat of Egypt during the Six-Day War.

Umm Kulthum sang for composers Mohammad El Mougi, Sayed Mekawy, and Baligh Hamdi.

Umm Kulthum died on 3 February 1975 aged 76, from kidney failure.

Umm Kulthum was buried in a Mausoleum close to the Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i in the City of the Dead in Cairo.

Umm Kulthum's death was a great tragedy for the country and drew international media attention, as news of her death was reported by the American Times magazine and the German Suddeutsche Zeitung magazine.

Umm Kulthum is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of Egyptian and Arabic music, with significant influence on a number of musicians, both in the MENA and beyond.

Umm Kulthum was referred to as "the Lady" by Charles de Gaulle as well and is regarded as the "Incomparable Voice" by Maria Callas.

Umm Kulthum's performances combined raw emotion and political rhetoric; she was greatly influential and spoke about politics through her music.

Umm Kulthum is notable in Baghdad due to her two visits to Iraq, the first occurring in November 1932 and the second in 1946 upon the invitation of regent Abd al-Ilah.

Umm Kulthum was known to be able to improvise and it was said that she would not sing a line the same way twice.

Umm Kulthum was a student of Abu al-Ila Muhammad, starting from her arrival in Cairo up until his death in 1927.

Umm Kulthum taught her to adapt her voice to the meaning and melody of a traditional Arabic aesthetic.