From Umm Kulthum to Fairouz.. an exhibition in Paris that celebrates the stars of the East
Among those featured in the exhibition, Yarouz is the only one still alive. AFP
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The Arab World Institute in Paris pays tribute to the women of singing and screen who revolutionized Arab music and cinema, from the two giants Umm Kulthum and Fairuz, to the legendary Dalida, through an exhibition about these stars who had a feminist contribution and positions on political issues.
"The idea is to introduce exceptional personalities who revolutionized music and cinema in the golden age of the Arab world, such as Umm Kulthum, Fairouz, Warda and Asmahan. their dreams.”
The "Diva" exhibition will continue until September 26, and includes posters, costumes for the stars, excerpts from their massive concerts, recreated models of some literary salons, and holograms.
The exhibition devoted a prominent aspect to Umm Kulthum.
The singer, who has been dubbed the “Fourth Pyramid” and is considered the most famous voice in the Arab world, is not only an Egyptian jewel.
When she died in 1975, a sea of people participated in her funeral in Cairo, but grief for her spread from Baghdad to Casablanca.
The entire Arab world would listen to her concerts on the first Thursday of every month on Cairo Radio.
The French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, who dedicated one of his albums entitled “Kalthoum” to her, noted in an interview on the “Entre Libre” television program that what “Planet of the Orient” enjoyed was “madness, freedom, personal strength and a distinctive character,” which made its impact on “every person.” Almost in the Arab world.
The women featured in the exhibition are also personalities with political influence, “Umm Kulthum was the embodiment of Arabism” during the time of the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, while “Warda, through her songs, carried the cause of decolonizing Algeria, the Lebanese Fairouz raised the banner of the Palestinian cause, and Asmahan (which is A Druze princess) with the Allies during World War II,” Hana Boghanem explained.
If Umm Kulthum united the entire Arab world, then Fairouz also made "all the Lebanese" agree, according to what Ibrahim Maalouf saw in a recent documentary entitled "Diva".
"Lebanon's ambassador to the stars" was a rare factor for national unity in a country that has not yet recovered from the divisions that tore it apart.
Fayrouz is the only one still alive among the stars included in the exhibition, and she is 86 today.
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