Umm Kulthum’s Heiresses Arabic Music Days at the Pierre Boulez Saal
C o r n e l i a We g e r h o f f
Her voice is omnipresent throughout North Africa and the Middle East: in taxis, tea houses, and through a million YouTube clicks. On Arabic radio stations, her songs are still among those most frequently played. People’s faces change when they listen to that distinctive dark timbre. They start to smile, they seem far away, even begin to praise the Almighty; in Algiers and Amman, in Baghdad and Beirut, in Khartoum and Cairo. Umm Kulthum remains one of the liveliest voices of the Arab-speaking world—even 44 years after her death. The Arabic Music Days—the festival’s third edition at the Pierre Boulez Saal—this year present an homage to the legendary Egyptian singer, her life and her afterlife. “Umm Kulthum set standards in the Arab music world for decades,” says Naseer Shamma, who once again serves as curator for the program. “Her impressive voice, her emotional power, her artistic work, supported by some of the bestknown Arabic composers and poets of her time, are all unique. ‘The Heart Desires All That Is Beautiful,’” he quotes a famous song title by Umm Kulthum that has long become a set phrase. The heart of the Arab world, says Shamma, desires this incomparable voice.
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