Umm Kalthum’s Voice: Revisited

Abstract

Not many Arabs will disagree with the statement that the voice of the late Umm Kalthum was and is still considered one of the very best Arabic female singers (Danielson 1997, 2005). Umm Kalthum’s real name was Fatima Ibrahim es-Sayyid el-Beltagi. She lived from December 31 1898 to February 3, 1975; some sources state her birthday is or May 4, 1904 (Danielson 1997). Besides this famous artistic name of Umm Kalthum, she was addressed by other honoring names such as Kawkab Alshark (Star of the East), Sawt Masr (The Voice of Egypt), or simply Al-Sit (The Lady). The latter name was given to her by the late French President, Charles de Gaulle. She was decorated with the highest state medals of honor in Egypt and many other Arab countries. It is rightly said that if all Arabs are unified about one thing, that thing is Umm Kalthum. Her art was always the subject of many press articles and media programs not only within the Arab world, but also at the international level. Examples of those who praised her singing include Bob Dylan (Hentoff 1978), Maria Callas (Alatrash 2015), Bono (Khalifeh 2015), Robert Plant (Khaled 2018), and many others. Umm Kalthum’s artistic life spanned about 50 years. She lived in the age of gramophone recordings of her early songs. In her later era, her performances were broadcast live on all Egypt radio stations. Those monthly performances were attended by many prestigious people from many Arab countries who could afford the airline ticket every month. Those who were less affluent always made sure to listen to her live singing on a highquality short wave radio in a cafe or as a welcomed guest at a friend’s house. All streets throughout the Arab world would be almost deserted during those performances. Each performance would last 5–6 hours and involve 3–4 songs of between 30–90 minutes each. When Umm Kalthum passed away, four million Egyptians participated in her funeral procession, outnumbering those who participated in the funeral of the president of the time (Danielson 1996). Although the uniqueness of Umm Kalthum’s voice has been the subject of many academic studies (Hussein 2015; Pallesen 2017; Lohman 2012; Nur 2015; Meixell 2002; Goldman 2006), all those studies were of a qualitative rather than quantitative type. This is not surprising since until recently, the experimental means of performing quantitative singing voice analysis studies were limited worldwide. In a review article, Gunjawate, Ravi, and Bellur (2018) argued that there is a lack of standardized criteria for the evaluation of singing voices, and there exists a need for methodical sound studies. Many singing voice analyses emphasize the importance of measuring the fundamental frequency F0