Umm Kulthum (1898-1975), the greatest and most popular figure of twentieth-century Egyptian music, was a singer and an icon whose performances touched the entire Arab-speaking world. Moreover, her vaunted and clear pronunciation of classical Arabic has made her a model for students of the language throughout the Muslim world, bringing her richly orchestrated settings of eastern Arabic tarab music along for the ride. Kulthum’s life has been masterfully documented by Virginia Danielson’s biography (1997), but Lohman’s Umm Kulthum: Artistic Agency and the Shaping of an Arab Legend, 1967-2007 aims to more fully treat the singer’s late work and posthumous legacy. Lohman does not aim to supersede Danielson’s biography, but to build upon it. Rejecting a biological-metaphor model of artistic biography that has artistic output declining in vigor and quality after the midpoint of a musician’s life, Lohman shows how Kulthum’s music and public persona were revitalized after the 1967 war with Israel, and how her life has been retrospectively argued, interpreted, and utilized.
The first three chapters examine the last eight years of Kulthum’s life, a time when her music was considered staid by some, but during which her public persona took on a new dimension in response to the catastrophic 1967 war with Israel. Lohman argues that, rather than marking a period of artistic decline, 1967 was a turning point that began an active late period in which Kulthum became a nationalist symbol, not only of Egypt, but also of Arabs in general. In response to the Arabs’ military defeat, she became a fundraiser and supporter of the Nasser regime as it rebuilt its military. Chapter 2 discusses Kulthum’s tour of the Arab world in 1968. The concerts fostered a pan-Arab unity and raised her profile outside of Egypt. Chapter 3 argues that Kulthum spent her last years actively working to burnish and curate her image as a patriot, humanitarian, and devout Muslim.
The second half of the book examines Kulthum’s posthumous reception, seeking to answer the question of “why and how she has remained so important” (15). Chapter 5 explores the ways in which Kulthum managed her public image as a woman. She married late and did not raise children, both unconventional choices in conservative Egyptian society. In her public image, she has become a complicated locus of the values and ideals of Egyptian womanhood. Chapter 6 considers the diverse ways Kulthum’s image has been maintained and appropriated. Lohman describes the monuments and museums dedicated to the singer, and the sonic memorials created by later musicians, radio programmers, and remixers.
Lohman has sifted through a vast body of scholarly and popular literature to produce an exceptionally well-documented and clearly argued examination of one of the great musicians of the twentieth century. Her analyses of the cultural representations are deft. She also selectively incorporates transcriptions of key passages of Kulthum recordings in order to show how her musical arrangements advanced her political aims. Kulthum emerges as a strong and sophisticated shaper of her media identity at a time when radio and television were in their infancy. Lohman makes frequent reference to Danielson’s earlier work, and readers interested in the life and work of Kulthum have likely already read that work. Lohman’s account is informed by dozens of posthumous video and print accounts of Kulthum’s life. There is a wealth of incisive media analysis in this book, particularly chapters 4 and 5, which will be of interest to a wider audience.
Work Cited
Danielson, Virginia. 1997. The Voice of Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
--------
[Review length: 584 words • Review posted on October 18, 2012]