Umm Kulthum[a] (Arabic: أم كلثوم; 31 December 1898 [3][4] – 3 February 1975) was an Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress active from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Umm Kulthum was born in the village of Tamay El Zahayra within the markaz of Senbellawein, Dakahlia Governorate,[4] to a family of a religious background.

[15] On stage, she wore a boy's cloak and bedouin head covering in order to alleviate her father's anxiety about her reputation and public performance.

During the early years of her career, she faced staunch competition from two prominent singers: Mounira El Mahdeya and Fatheya Ahmed, who had voices similar to hers.

El Mahdeya's friend, who worked as an editor at Al-Masra, suggested several times that Umm Kulthum had married one of the guests who frequently visited her household; this affected her conservative father so much that he decided that the whole family should return to their village.

[16] Following this incident, Umm Kulthum made a public statement regarding visits in her household in which she announced she would no longer receive visitors.

[21] In 1932, she embarked upon a major tour of the Middle East and North Africa, performing in prominent Arab capital cities such as Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut, Rabat, Tunis, and finally Tripoli.

[15] Her influence kept growing and expanding beyond the artistic scene: the reigning royal family would request private concerts and even attend her public performances.

It led her to distance herself from the royal family and embrace grassroots causes, exemplified by her acceptance of the request of the Egyptian legion trapped in the Faluja Pocket during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, who had asked her to sing a particular song.

[29] Umm Kulthum's monthly concerts were renowned for their ability to clear the streets of some of the world's most populous cities as people rushed home to tune in.

These performances are in some ways reminiscent of the structure of Western opera, consisting of long vocal passages linked by shorter orchestral interludes.

Her songs were virtuosic, as befitted her newly trained and very capable voice, and romantic and modern in musical style, feeding the prevailing currents in Egyptian popular culture of the time.

She worked extensively with texts by romance poet Ahmad Rami and composer Mohammad El-Qasabgi, whose songs incorporated European instruments such as the violoncello and double bass, as well as harmony.

[32] Umm Kulthum's musical directions in the 1940s and early 1950s and her mature performing style led this period to become popularly known as the singer's "golden age".

Keeping up with changing popular taste as well as her own artistic inclinations, in the early 1940s, she requested songs from composer Zakariya Ahmad and colloquial poet Mahmud Bayram el-Tunsi cast in styles considered to be indigenously Egyptian.

Simultaneously, Umm Kulthum started to rely heavily on a younger composer who joined her artistic team a few years earlier: Riad Al-Sunbati.

While Sonbati was evidently influenced by Qasabgi in those early years, the melodic lines he composed were more lyrical and more acceptable to Umm Kulthum's audience.

In 1946, Umm Kulthum defied all odds by presenting a religious poem in classical Arabic: Salou Qalbi ["Ask My Heart"], written by Ahmad Shawqi and composed by Ryad Al Sunbati.

Similar poems written by Shawqi were subsequently composed by Sonbati and sung by Umm Kulthum, including Woulida el Houda ["The Prophet is Born"] 1949), in which she surprised royalists by singing a verse that describes Muhammad as "the Imam of Socialists".

Ibrahim Nagi's poem "Al-Atlal" ["The Ruins"], sung by Umm Kalthum in 1966 in a personal version and with a melody composed by Sonbati, is considered one of her signature songs.

One of her improvisatory techniques was to repeat a single line or stance over and over, subtly altering the emotive emphasis and intensity and exploring one or various musical modal scales (maqām) each time to bring her audiences into a euphoric and ecstatic state known in Arabic as "tarab" طرب.

Following the formation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1971, she staged several concerts upon the invitation of its first president Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to celebrate the event.

Her funeral procession was held at the Omar Makram mosque and became a national event, with around 4 million[12] Egyptians lining the streets to catch a glimpse as her cortège passed.

The mourners would also wrest the casket from the shoulders of its bearers, force the procession to change its direction[21] and brought her coffin to the prominent Al Azhar mosque.

Umm Kulthum is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of Egyptian and Arabic music,[35] with significant influence on a number of musicians, both in the MENA and beyond.

[44] The nickname is often heard in her live records when ecstatic audience shout "الله عليكي يا ست" (English: may God bless you, Lady 'Aset') or "عظمة علي عظمة يا ست" (English: "this is greatness upon greatness, Lady 'Aset') and that often happen after she ends a song or hit a high note.

During those two visits, the Iraqi artistic, social and political circles took an interest in Umm Kulthum, and as a result, a large number of her fans and her voice lovers opened dozens of Baghdadi coffeehouses that bore her name in different places.

[4] In January 2019, at the Winter in Tantora festival in Al-'Ula, a live concert was performed for the first time with her "appearing as a hologram with accompaniment by an orchestra and bedecked in flowing, full-length gowns as she had when debuting in the 1920s.