Cairo, the 17th July, 2009

"The reason why Om Kolthoum will always be my biggest inspiration.

She was and still is simply the BEST!"

As I was finishing to literally swallow the book "I loved you for your voice", by Selim Nassib (already on my MUST READ list in this BLOG) I got stuck on the same page, reading and re-reading it again and again...there I found the description of what I think is one of my favourite moments caught on tape of my adored diva Om Kolthoum.

Some months ago, I found something DIVINE - this is the real meaning of divine I'm using here - on the Youtube and, since then, I couldn't stop sharing it with students and friends.

The passage on the book that got me stuck for 20 minutes on the same page (associating it with the live concert video I have saved as a treasure on my pc) describes one of the last concerts Om Kolthoum ever gave. It was in Morocco and the description is made by the poet Ahmad Rami who lived a frustrated love with the singer until his own death in 1981 and wrote 137 of the 283 songs performed by her.

The following text and video I am sharing with you is pure magic and explain all my passion and endless love for arabic music and dance.This is it! I've seen nothing better than this as far as music talent goes...I cry every time I see this video...

Click on this link and watch the BEST:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eavlX3fkHco

"Just a wink...a wink I took for a greeting." Her voice, challenged by the cheering and applause and proving iself capable, this evening in particular, of responding, gradually filled with emotion to the point of breaking. Muhammad (Abdul Wahab) and I looked at each other.

"She seems to be in top form.", he murmured.

That was an understatement. Her vocal cords lingered over the same phrase, repeating it relentlessly, but never twice in the same way, stopping on one word alone, nazra , "a glance", and putting it through all its paces.All she had to do was let it out. Her mastery was so sovereign that she could ignore the rules. She wasn't singing as a virtuoso but as someone freely in love, flinging herself into the void. "Just a glance...a glance I took for a greeting / Did it contain / Commitment and promises and suffering." On the second syllable of the word salaam , "greeting" she went off into incredible variations which moved furtherand further away from the core, she didn't care, she was creating autonomous arabesques, perfectly circular and improbable little units, an entire vocal architecture. I suddenly felt that something unique was taking place."

Piece from the recommended book "I loved you for your voice", by Selim Nassib