Umm Kulthum

The circumstances for women making music early in and prior to Umm Kulthum’s career were extremely different than at times later in her career. Males dominated the music world for a long time. Eventually women were allowed to perform, but even this was usually in front of other women. They performed at special occasions such as weddings and holidays. The women would sing religious songs as well as performing recitations of the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book. The ‘awalim, or learned women, are known as the female professional top performers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These women would perform “under contract to individual patrons for specific occasions.” On the other end of the spectrum are the ghawazi dancers. These women, unveiled provocative dancers hired to entertain men at weddings, coffee houses and

Umm Kulthum, born about 1904, had a very humble upbringing in a poor village in the Nile delta of Egypt. Her father, a shaykh (Qur’anic reciter) was her first teacher. Generally in Arab countries, daughters tend to have a warm personal relationship with their fathers. Umm Kulthum’s father had been teaching her older brother songs and when he realized the power of his young daughters strong voice he began to include her in the lessons. Gradually Umm Kulthum accompanied them at celebrations which they performed, dressed in male Bedouin clothing so as not to reveal her female identity. Her early Qu’ran learning and the fact that she knew all the rules of tajwid nursed her excellent diction and pronunciation. She then began to perform for women’s occasions, dressed as a female. Her singing was so impressive that upper middle class Egyptians at their villas in the countryside hired her to perform for women. She learned proper manners through emulating these elite women. Her increasing popularity caused the family of performers to travel all over:

During her first ‘golden age,” in the 1940's, Umm Kulthum performed and recorded her most famous songs. She would sing long songs called ughniyyah-s, which would last anywhere from thirty minutes to over an hour. If the audience liked a verse they would let her know by their shouts of approval, and she would repeat this verse until they were satisfied. She took composed songs and would vary, repeat and extend lines within the song. Umm Kulthum was also good at improvising within a maqam. When she was on stage she stood still, with little movement except for the scarf that she held in her hand. She wanted to separate herself from low-class dancers. Singers were much more respectable. The scarf that she carried was primarily to articulate her gestures, since that was her only form of movement that the audience could physically see. The Musicians that she worked with in the firqah were with her for many years. They were used to her and worked with her very well. Songs the

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