Umm Kulthūm’s father was a village imam who sang
traditional religious songs at weddings and holidays to
make ends meet. She learned to sing from him, and, when
he noticed the strength of her voice, he began taking her
with him, dressed as a boy to avoid the opprobrium of
displaying a young daughter onstage. Egyptian society
during Umm Kulthūm’s youth held singing—even of
the religious variety—to be a disreputable occupation,
especially for a female. Umm Kulthūm made a name for
herself singing in the towns and villages of the Egyptian
delta (an area throughout which she retained a great fol-
lowing). By the time she was a teenager, she had become
the family star.
Sometime about 1923 the family moved to Cairo, a
major centre of the lucrative world of entertainment and
emerging mass media production in the Middle East.
There they were perceived as old-fashioned and countrified.
To improve her image and acquire sophistication, Umm
Kulthūm studied music and poetry from accomplished
performers and literati and copied the manners of the
ladies of wealthy homes in which she was invited to sing.
She soon made a name in the homes and salons of the
wealthy as well as in public venues such as theatres and
cabarets. By the mid-1920s she had made her first recordings
and had achieved a more polished and sophisticated musical
and personal style. By the end of the 1920s, she had become
a sought-after performer and was one of the best-paid
musicians in Cairo. Her extremely successful career in
commercial recording eventually extended to radio, film,
and television. In 1936 she made her first motion picture,
Wedad, in which she played the title role. It was the first of
six motion pictures in which she was to act.
Beginning in 1937, she regularly gave a performance
on the first Thursday (which in most Islamic countries is
the last day of the workweek) of every month. By this time
7 Umm Kulthum 7