Hear Ergot Records’ Umm Kulthūm Celebration from April 30

Known as the voice of Egypt, legendary singer Umm Kulthūm was born 122 years ago on May 4th. To celebrate her birthday, Ergot Records have unveiled a once in a lifetime collection of around 200 of her records, a selection of which can be heard on their April 30th show with special guests Andrew Kamel and Garry Sullivan. Check out the Mixcloud archive here.

Born in the rural eastern Delta of Egypt to a fallahah, or peasant, family, Umm Kulthūm was trained at a young age in Quranic recitation, a background which equipped her with the consummate clarity of Arabic diction that would become her hallmark. Due to her unusually powerful voice, she was invited to join her father’s ensemble, touring locally dressed as a boy before eventually moving to Cairo. There, she proved to be a dedicated artist and shrewd businesswoman, working with a variety of different composers and writers to combine neo-classical and populist forms, recording about 300 songs over the next 50 years. She is best known for her monthly, Thursday night concerts, which reached millions due to their being broadcast over the radio. The first Thursday of the month was thus institutionalized as “Umm Kulthūm Night,” an evening during which Egyptians from all walks of life would stop what they were doing to gather around the radio and listen. Her concerts could extend up to seven hours, with her sometimes singing two-hour versions of her songs, repeating lines and stanzas at the request of her adoring audience as they reached a state of tarab, or enchantment. She was known to never sing a line the same way twice, with her spontaneous variations numbering up to 50 subsequent timbral, rhythmic, and melodic innovations on a text. She taught poetry to the masses, and it was said that even those who did not speak Arabic would understand the meaning of a text from listening to her sing it. In the face of colonial oppression and obscene Zionist expansion, Umm Kulthūm was a dedicated pan-Arab nationalist and her funeral in 1975 was one of the largest peaceful human gatherings in history. Egyptian radio still plays the music of Umm Kulthūm, Egypt’s fourth pyramid, on the first Thursday of every month to this day.

Umm Kulthūm – Ya Nassim El Fagr
Umm Kulthūm – Alf Leila Wa Leila
Umm Kulthūm – Rabiaa El Adawia
Umm Kulthūm – Ana Fe Entezarack
Umm Kulthūm – Awedt Eni
Umm Kulthūm – Baidn Annak
Umm Kulthūm – Hazihi Leilati
Umm Kulthūm – Fakkarouni
Umm Kulthūm – Anta Oumri
Ammar El Shariey – Enta Omri