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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZKALTHUM, Om(b '10 in Tammay, a village in the Egyptian delta; d '75) Singer in classical Islamic style. Grew up in trad. family with religious background; early on her father recognized her powerful voice and took her with him to sing at religious festivities; growing fame brought increased wealth to the family, but embarrassed at daughter singing religious songs in public her father dressed her as a boy. She was much praised by singer Shaykkh Abu al-'lla for her singing of Maqam, the classical Islamic singing tradition; he took her and her father to Cairo and taught her in the '20s. She gradually broadened her repertory but still sang classical poetry and the songs of Muhammad, resisting pressure to sing popular songs (musica sharbeya). She made her first record with Victor in Cairo c'25, followed by many more; she gradually changed from singing only with male vocal quartet to the use of a small orchestra '26. Her fame spread as a classical singer for the next fifty years throughout the Arab world, but with very wide appeal among ordinary people; for many years she sang in the same theatre on the first Thursday every month in Cairo, and it was an honour for a foreign dignitary to be taken to hear her. She was famous for her stamina (a concert lasted over four hours) as well as vitality, power and range of expression. She was married to Dr Hisnan Hifnami, but had no children. Her last concert in Cairo '73 preceded serious illness; on her death Radio Cairo chanted the Koran following the announcement, a mark of status normally reserved for heads of state. Her records and cassettes (e.g. from EMI/Greece) still sold up to 75,000 a year a decade after her death. Among the people who wrote songs for her was the blind singer and composer Sayyid Makkawi (b 8 June '28, Cairo; d April '97), whose television operettas from the '60s and '70s were enormously popular. |