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Umm Kulthum: Queen Of The Nile
Umm Kulthum was a one-off. She was a diva in the truest sense, but at the same time she was an original working-class hero who repeatedly identified herself as a villager, a fallahah or peasant, who shared a cultural background and essential values with the majority of the Egyptian populace. To say Kulthum was an iconic figure in Egypt would be to do the term iconic too gross an injustice. Commonly known as Kawkab al-Sharq (The Star Of The East), Umm Kulthum was so much more. She is almost regarded as royalty in Egypt and the wider Middle East; and she also held the sort of power normally reserved for presidents and heads of state. For example, she died in 1975 but to this day at 10pm on the first Thursday of every month, all Egyptian radio stations play nothing but her music.
But this is not the only way she makes her presence felt. Get into any taxi in Cairo and there’s a pretty high chance the driver will be playing one of her songs. Late at night grainy black and white footage of her live performances will be screened on the TVs of countless bustling street cafes and shops. Then there are images, portraits, murals of her as street graffiti, not to mention the millions of cassettes and CDs stocked in small kiosks, which relay her art throughout the Middle East.
Umm Kulthum was born Fatima Ibrahim al-Baltagi in a rural village called Tammay al-Zahayrah near the city of al-Sinbillawayn in the Delta province of Daqahliyah, to father al-Shaykh Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Baltaji, who was an imam at the village mosque and housewife mother, Fatmah al-Maliji. There’s no certainty as to her date of birth, but the most reliable suggestion is May 4 1904 according to provincial birth records. The family dwelled in a small mud brick house and lived in near-poverty. The family’s meager source of income came from her father by singing religious songs for weddings and other celebrations in his own and neighbouring villages.
Source: thequietus.com