Umm Kulthum

Umm Kulthum was an Egyptian singer and film actress, known as Kawkab al-Sharq ("Star of the East"), "the Voice of Egypt" and "Egypt's Fourth Pyramid". ¹ She was the most celebrated Arab singer of the twentieth century, and her monthly radio concerts drew listeners across the Arab world for some forty years. ¹ In 2023 Rolling Stone ranked her 61st among the 200 greatest singers of all time. ¹

The English article gives her full name as Fatima Ibrahim es-Sayyid el-Beltagi. ¹ The Arabic article gives the name as it appears on her birth certificate: Umm Kulthum Ibrahim es-Sayyid el-Beltagi. ² Her birth year is genuinely disputed, and this museum records the dispute rather than resolving it: the Arabic article's lead and the traditional Egyptian date give 31 December 1898, the English article's lead gives 4 May 1904, and Wikidata carries both dates as separate claims. ^{2 1 3} The Arabic article's text adds a third date, saying that "official records" give 4 May 1908. ² The date followed in her data record is 31 December 1898, and she died on 3 February 1975 — aged 76 on the 1898 date, or 70 on the 1904 date the English article uses. ^{1 3}

She was born in Tamay al-Zahayra, a village in the Dakahlia Governorate of the Nile Delta. ^{1 3} Her father Ibrahim was the imam and muezzin of the village, and her mother was Fatmah el-Maleegi. ¹ As a child she memorised the Qur'an at the village kuttab. ¹ She began to sing religious hymns with her father's ensemble, dressed in boy's clothing, because a girl's public singing was not accepted in her village world. ¹

She moved to Cairo in 1923, the move that turned a village hymn-singer into a professional artist. ¹ The poet Ahmed Rami wrote 137 songs for her. ¹ Her composers included Mohamed el-Qasabgi, Zakaria Ahmed and Riad el-Sunbati, the three men who shaped her classical style. ¹ In the mid-1960s she began working with Mohamed Abdel Wahab, the other giant of the age, on "Inta Omri" ("You Are My Life"). ¹ She later worked with the younger composer Baligh Hamdi, whose songs renewed her repertoire for a new generation. ¹

From 1934 she gave a concert on the first Thursday of every month, broadcast live on Egyptian radio. ¹ The monthly concerts continued for some forty years, and streets across the Arab world emptied as people gathered around radios to hear them. ¹

She acted in six films, from Weddad in 1936 to Fatimah in 1947. ¹

Her song "Wallahi Zaman Ya Silahi" ("By God, It Has Been a While, My Weapon") served as Egypt's national anthem from 1960 to 1979. ¹ After Egypt's defeat in the 1967 war she toured giving "Art for the War Effort" concerts, raising money for the Egyptian armed forces at home and abroad. ¹

She suffered from Graves' disease, an illness of the thyroid that affected her eyes, and she underwent surgery in the United States in 1953. ¹ Her trademark dark sunglasses were connected with the condition and the stage lights that hurt her eyes. ¹ In 1954 she married Dr Hasan al-Hifnawi, her physician; the Arabic article gives his name as Hasan es-Sayyid el-Hifnawi. ^{1 2} The marriage had no children. ¹

She died in Cairo on 3 February 1975, of kidney failure. ¹ Her funeral procession drew some four million mourners, one of the largest gatherings of its kind. ¹ She was buried in a mausoleum in the City of the Dead in Cairo, near the tomb of Imam al-Shafi'i; Wikidata names the Al Basatin cemetery as her burial place. ^{1 3} The Umm Kulthum Museum, holding her possessions and recordings, opened in 2001 at the Manesterly Palace in Cairo. ¹

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