Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt

Was Umm Kulthum’s voice her only true impact on the People of Egypt?[The 3 pieces to the impact puzzle]

If you search for Umm Kulthum on Google, you will find a plethora of articles talking about her ever rising success up until today in the year of 2021. As a person born in 1904, who rose to fame in the mid 1940’s, one can truly believe that the only reason for her extremely successful career is her unique voice. Why else would her reign of popularity be referred to as “The Golden Age of Umm Kulthum”? However, why did her unique voice resonate so much with Egyptians? How did Umm Kulthum solely impact, not only the people of Egypt, but the people of the Middle East? With these questions in mind, I turned to the documentary titled Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt. A documentary produced, directed, and written by Michael Goldman in the year 1996. This documentary touches on many aspects of Umm Kulthum’s life, but we will focus on 3 main ones- which we will soon call, “the impact puzzle”. Once we talk about all the “puzzle pieces” individually, we will put them together and figure out Umm Kulthum’s true impact on the people of Egypt. Let’s get started!

The documentary took the time to allow us into Umm Kulthum life as an artist; who she was, her upbringing, and what provoked her to start singing. Using a narrator to mimic the voice of Umm Kulthum, she stated “people say I began to sing for the love of the art of singing, but that is not true. In the beginning, I began singing because we were in need”. Thirteen minutes into the documentary, and we already are able to see Umm Kulthum in the rawest form. The women who only performed on stage in expensive, high-end gowns was not always a part of that socioeconomic class growing up. We can see that she can relate to Egyptians down to the lowest level of wealth because she too, was once at that level. But what does Umm Kulthum’s socioeconomic class have to do with her true impact on the Egyptian people? It does! We must continue the review and put the pieces of the impact puzzle together.

Tarab, or ‘musical ecstasy’ as described in the documentary, is the main objective of arabic music. When combined with the correct artist, poetry, and emotion, it can be reached. Tarab is also an aspect of music that Umm Kulthum is easily able to achieve. Her singing is so articulate and sweet, yet strong and assertive that the audience cannot hold back. A fifteen minute song usually yields about two hours of repetition and improvisation to the audience’s likings. You may be thinking, ‘well of course. This is why she is famous- it’s because of her voice’. But I am here to tell you that Umm Kulthum had an impact on the people of Egypt with her singing and tarab in another way than just entertainment. However, we must look at the last piece of the impact puzzle to figure it out.