Um Kalthoum / Oum Kalsoum - Seret El Hob [The Narrative of Love] (1946)

Labeled "indisputably the Arab world's greatest singer" by World Music: The Rough Guide, Egyptian singer Umm Kalthum (alternately spelled Kalthoum or Kalsoum) is regarded as a treasure of Middle Eastern culture. In a career that lasted more than 50 years she became known as "the voice and face of Egypt" with a voice powerful enough to shatter glass but that was used more often to capture the emotional depth of the poems she set to music. Her importance to Egyptian music in particular and Middle Eastern music in general prompted her biographer, Virginia Danielson, to write on the All Music Guide website: "Imagine a singer with the virtuosity of Joan Sutherland or Ella Fitzgerald, the public persona of Eleanor Roosevelt and the audience of Elvis and you have Umm Kulthum, the most accomplished singer of her century in the Arab world."

Umm Kulthum (Arabic: أم كلثوم; Umm Kultūm, also spelled Om Koultoum, Om Kalthoum, mmü Gülsüm, Oum Kalsoum, Oum Kalthum, Omm Kolsoum, Umm Kolthoum, Um Kalthoom, and Omme Kolsoum, born فاطمة إبراهيم البلتاجي, Fātima Ibrāhīm al-Baltāgī) (December 31, 1904–February 3, 1975) in Al Senbellawein. Egyptian singer, songwriter, and an actress. She is known as "the Star of the East". More than three decades after her death, she is still recognized as the Arab world's most famous and distinguished singer of the 20th century.

Music : Baligh Hamdi
Lyrics: Morsi Gamil Aziz

Track:
Seret El Hob ~ 39m:15s