A Tribute to Oum Kalsoum
Everyone has their own special relationship with Oum Kalsoum. As I travelled the Region, eyes lit up and advice spilt as I explained our plans for a tribute to the Legend. Everyone has their favourite song that she sang and their favourite singer who can *attempt* to do her songs justice. Our list of potential singers grew and grew. Each time I asked about the perfect number of musicians to accompany her songs, the figures increased – ‘13 violins’ ‘No, 25 violins’; ‘a choir of 10 girls and boys’ ‘no, no, a choir of 20 of each gender’.
It was this ownership that attracted me to her; that so many people find something in Oum Kalsoum that speaks to them. People talk of her politically: she was at the heart of many of the defining political moments of the 20th century for Egypt. In 1956 when Nasser extended Egypt’s airwaves and publicly announced the nationalisation of the Suez Canal it was her voice that rang out on the radio to frame the announcement. And she supported the Pan-Arab nationalist movement, deliberately setting out to commission composers from every Arabic-speaking country to write for her. People talk of her as a feminist catalyst for change, as a gay icon, as Egypt’s ‘fourth pyramid’. She’s also seen a cultural icon: her beehive haircuts, her use of scarves as she sang and her diamond encrusted sunglasses became synonymous with her name. Contemporary artists today remain inspired by her – Huda Lutfi, Chant Avedissian and Rana Salam all have made recent work indebted to her legend. And most importantly it was her voice, her range and the way she commanded the room. Oum Kalsoum would sing for hours, repeating the same line in countless different ways that would delight her audience.
One night in Cairo, I was ushered in at midnight to a very formal receiving room near the pyramids at Giza to listen to the renowned conductor, Salim Sahab, who shall work with us on our project, give his own hushed tribute to the First Lady of Egypt. Born in Palestine, raised in Lebanon and educated in Moscow, Maestro Sahab never met Oum Kalsoum. However, he has devoted most of his career to conducting renditions of the songs that she made great.
Our homage in London, both our classical concert with the ‘perfect’ number of accompanying musicians and our contemporary gig, with the addition of films and talks, will be an attempt to capture some of this magic and tell some of these personal stories.
