2025 had been declared Oum Kalthoum Year in Egypt – it was fifty years ago that Egypt’s most famous singer died – the Israeli Firqat Alnoor Orchestra decided that it also wanted to add luster to the celebration in Israel with several concerts. Egyptian cultural institutions object to the use of her music in Israel, and Oum Kalthoum’s family threatens to file a lawsuit, the Israeli newspaper reports Haaretz. The orchestra had not asked the family for permission to use her music or to print her image in the program. Apart from the legal demands, Egyptian anger has been aroused mainly because Kalthoum, Egypt’s national symbol, is allegedly being used for cultural appropriation.
The concert was initially scheduled for June, but was postponed after the Israeli attack on Iran and the air strikes that followed from Iran in response. The orchestra – consisting of Jewish and Arab musicians – often performs classical Arabic music, it wants to introduce a large Israeli audience to the “grandeur of the rich musical heritage from the Middle East”, according to the website of the orchestra. All this based on the idea that “music is timeless and universal”.
The orchestra has often been criticized for performing works with Arab nationalism and cultural pride, he said Haaretzbut with Oum Kalthoum it provokes even more resistance. Is this indeed a case of cultural appropriation, or has ‘The Lady of the Nile’ now become a global icon that can no longer be exclusively linked to Egypt?
‘Fight imperialism’
Kalthoum is indeed an icon worldwide and now stands for more than Egyptian music. At the same time, few singers are so emphatically linked to their country. Um Kalthoum – who was given names such as ‘The Nightingale of the Nile’, ‘Opium of the Arab People’, ‘The Star of the East’, ‘Mother of the Arabs’ and even ‘Egypt’s Fourth Pyramid’ – was born in a small village in the Nile Delta between 1898 and 1904 (her exact date of birth is not recorded). As an imam, her father sang religious songs and took his daughter with him at an early age to recite Koranic verses. As a child she was noticed when she sang, and when the family moved to Cairo she quickly made a wider name for herself as a singer as a teenager. Her voice was so powerful that it broke microphones and it was said that she could sing as high as , a pitch that is already inaudible to many people.
For almost forty years – from 1934 to 1972 – she thrilled Egyptians on the first Thursday of the month when her hours-long live concerts were broadcast on the radio. It was quiet throughout Cairo and the future president Nasser took advantage of that ‘prime time’ by having his radio speeches immediately follow her concert. The two had become friends, together they delivered the pan-Arab message and Kalthoum supported Nasser in his efforts to free Egypt from the British yoke. “Egyptians, our glorious people: fight imperialism and it will be ended,” she sang.
Kalthoum became politically more outspoken after the Second World War: she supported the Egyptian revolution and until 1960 half of her repertoire consisted of patriotic songs. Her song ‘Walla Zaman ya Selahy’ (‘Oh, my weapon’, 1956) was considered the national anthem of Egypt. After Egypt lost the Six-Day War to Israel in 1967, in which eleven thousand Egyptians were killed, she raised money for Egypt with an international concert tour. It took place not only in the Arab world, but also in Paris – her only European show – where she raised more than two million dollars.
‘Liberation of occupied territories’
She also performed several times in Palestinian areas and expressed the hope at concerts that one day “the captivity of the Palestinians would end.” She increasingly became concerned with both music and political goals, including: she meant on “liberating the dearly occupied territories, cleansing Palestine of the stain of Zionism and returning Arab Palestinians to their homeland.”
As is often the case with cultural expressions – regardless of whether it is music, art or literature – these concerts are not only about what is performed, but also about why. The fact that Kalthoum has been dead for fifty years is extensively commemorated in Egypt and promoted internationally with various concerts, films and activities. “We want to revive her spirit as an artistic and cultural phenomenon, affirming that Egypt will always remain a beacon of fine arts and musical creativity,” said Ahmed Hannothe Egyptian Minister of Culture.
Um Kalthoum is Egypt, and her voice cannot be in Israel
Kalthoum’s music can be heard everywhere in Gaza, and several Palestinian singers have indicated how important her music is to them. By also performing the music in Israel, her music is, as it were, made ‘harmless’ by stripping it of its political vision and relying solely on the composition. Her music may be universal in beauty, but her lyrics and intentions were not.
Egyptian cultural authorities are therefore talking about “abuse of Arab musical heritage”, “exploitation of Arab culture” and an “attack on Egyptian heritage in Israel”. A cousin of Kalthoum explained to the newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat exclaims: “Um Kalthoum is Egypt, and her voice cannot be in Israel.”
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