One of the things I miss most about Morocco is hearing the music of Oum Kalthoum in public places—cafés, long-distance bus rides—so I’d like to share with you one of my favorites, “Esal Rouhak.” It goes on for 42 minutes so just press Play, leave the window open and enjoy! Or right-click here to download the .mp3.
[audio:http://www.eatbees.com/blog/audio/esal-rouhak.mp3]
I love OumKalthoum
How come YOU like her, I am curious to know how you discovered her and what it is that you like about her :)
Well, like I say, she was always around! Part of the atmosphere, you might say — especially in Fès where I was living. All my friends, young and old, liked her, and gave me her music, and translated her words, and told me things about her life. I know that she was a Qur’an reader as a girl, before she became a romantic singer. And I understand that while she may be singing about the anguish of a broken heart, there is an “existential” or spiritual dimension to it as well. I think this comes across even without knowing the words…
A fellow bloger suggested a book about her life
“Oum” by Sélim Nassib
and it sounded amazing as he transcripted a passage from it
I am still hearing the song you put (almost finished), I love her, in fact I love the way she makes us feel every word she is singing waw
Tout à l’heure, je m’étais bien appliquée pour écire un commentaire en anglais. Il a disparu je ne sais où. J’ai eu la flemme de m’y remettre.
Je vois qu’il devrait y avoir 4 commentaires. Il n’y en a que 3. Le mien n’aurait pas disparu???
@Massir — I’m sorry about your comment! About a week ago I started getting “comment spam” (“Nice site” “Thanks!” with links) so I installed a plugin that is supposed to invisibly decide whether your comment is spam or not. (It can tell whether you are using a real navigator or a robot.) So far I think it’s been working, but it may have eaten your comment. If so, I apologize. I know you’re not a robot! What I was really looking for was a plugin that makes a person type a few letters… I’ll keep looking… that’s too bad, I want to know what you had to say!
I’m offended. My english was so bad he decided non human being could have writen such a comment!!!!
Actually, I’m attending an english course twice a week.
I’ll try again.
I said, I have read Tha book “Oum” by Sélim Nassib. It was years ago.
Last year, in Egypt, I visited her museum.
You have to read “the book”, not “Tha book”.
Egyptian people used to listen to her singing on the radio each thursday evening.
They say that in 1967, Israel attacked Egypt on thursday evening, because they knew eveybody was listening to her.
I really love her songs.
Massir, do you mean a non-human being (the anti-spam script) decided it had the right to judge you as non-human because of your English…!? Now I’M offended. We’ll have to look into this. :)
I’m glad to see you’re able to get through now. Did you notice that Kenza recommended the same book you did, in an earlier comment? I guess with both of you recommending it, this is not to be ignored…!!
Right now I’m reading a book called “Muhammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth” by a scholar named Stetkevych. It’s about the Thamud people, and the prophet Saleh, and tells more about this story than you can know from the Qur’an alone. Apparently there were oral traditions. Of course one of the questions is whether the Arabs even have myths in the way that, say, the Greeks do. There is the idea that all myth belongs to “al-Jahiliyah” and now that we have the Qur’an, there is only knowledge. The book deals with that, too. It’s a bit “too” scholarly, but excellent.
If I was Israel, I would never attack Egypt during Oum Kelthoum! That is in very bad taste! :)
Hey, I tried to comment before, too, and it rejected me. I love Oum Kalthoum too, especially “Inta Omri.”
Mon dieu if I continue visiting blogs I will end up with a list of 1000 books that I’d like to read
I found info about “Muhammad and the Golden Bough: Reconstructing Arabian Myth” on the net it sounds really really intersting …
About OumKalthoum I remember a documentary made by french television on the show she gave at the olympia in Paris.
In that show she was singing Al Atlal and in one part she was singing: Had love ever seen drunk people like us (my own translation sorry:) )
and a man from the public came to her, kneeled in front of her and kissed her feet … she was moved and after everything go to normal she started her song where she left it but changing the words to: had love ever seen drunk people among us (again my traslation :)
people went crazy after that …
the effect she had on her public was just magic
Merci pour ce morceau,d’oum kalthoum la diva de la chanson arabe,juste pour dire que j’apprécié sa chanson ALEF LEILA.si quelqu’un pourrai me trouvé le mp3 de cette chanson je serai reconnaissant et merci d’avance.
Eatbees j’apprecié aussi ton avatar.
With regards
Jilal je l’ai mais en wma
je suis prête à te l’envoyer si tu me dit comment
sinon si tu la veux en ram tu peux la télécharger sur:
http://6arab.com/singers-ar/middle/om-kalthoom-ar.shtml
et tu la transfert en mp3 si tu veux par la suite
T’es trop gentil kenza je suis vraiment aux anges ce tte chanson ca va me servire pour le poste que je vais ecrire tres bientot,qui racontera mon anniverssaire.je suis aussi content de connaitre le site al tarab que je connaissais pas auparavant.donc je peut dire que j’ai atteint deux oiseaux avec une seul lance.
donc tu as gagné un lien vers mon blog.
Tbarek ellah alik.et merci a eatbees que je respecte.
jila from paris
Salut les amis. Je viens de faire un nouveau poste qui a pris pas mal du temps. Kenza, si tu as le temps, je pourrais te donner le chemin pour télécharger ALEF LEILA sur mon serveur. Je pourrais le convertir après en .mp3 et l’exposer ici. Jilal, bienvenu sur eatbees. L’avatar est une collaboration, on peut dire, entre le photographe (moi) et un ami qui a connu parfois ce sentiment de déception, de “rien que poussière” qui donne à cette image sa force. Voilà le chemin vers l’image original.
Oum Kalthoum s’éteint à l’hôpital le 3 février 1975 à l’aube. C’est le verité, elle ne va pas revenir! On sait ça! Mais elle restera dans notre coeur!
j adore oumkhltoum.ELLE est divine
slt je suis une très grande fan de la grande oum kaltom .je l’adore depuis mon enfance .ca fait 36ans que s’est disparu mais il restera dans nous coeur jusqu’a la mort
tu aurais mérité plus d ecommentaires pour on billet ! ;)
I love (OUM KALTHOUM) She is the Greatest
I had this cd many years ago but it was stolen; first time I’ve heard this in so long, thank you for the happy tears I’m crying while I listen!