Oum Kalthoum was born in Tamay ez-Zahayra village in El Senbellawein, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. Her birth date is controversial, either 31 December 1898, 31 December 1904 or 4 May, 1904. She died 3 February, 1975.
At a young age, she showed exceptional singing talent. Her father, an Imam, taught her to recite the Qur'an, and she is said to have memorised the entire book. When she was twelve years old, her father disguised her as a young boy and entered her in a small performing troupe that he directed. At the age of sixteen she was noticed by Abol Ela Mohamed, a modestly famous singer, and by the famous oudist Zakariyya Ahmad, who invited her to Cairo. She waited until 1923 before accepting the invitation. She was invited on several occasions to the house of Amin Beh Al Mahdy, who taught her how to play the oud. She developed a very close relationship with Rawyeha Al Mahdy, daughter of Amin, and became her closest friend. Kalthoum even attended Rawheya's daughter's wedding, although she has always tried to avoid public appearances. Amin Al Mahdy introduced her to the cultural circles in Cairo.
At this point in her career, she was introduced to the famous poet Ahmad Rami, who wrote 137 songs for her. Rami also introduced her to French literature, which he greatly admired from his studies at the Sorbonne, Paris, and eventually became her chief mentor in Arabic literature and literary analysis. Furthermore, she was introduced to the renowned lute virtuoso and composer Mohamed El Qasabgi. El Qasabgi introduced Kalthoum to the Arabic Theatre Palace, where she would experience her first real public success. In 1932 her fame increased to the point where she embarked upon a large tour of the Middle East, touring such cities as Damascus, Baghdad, Beirut, and Tripoli, Lebanon.
By 1948 her fame had come to the attention of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who would later become the president of Egypt. At one point the Egyptian musicians guild of which she became a member (and eventually president) rejected her because she had sung for the then-deposed king, Farouk of Egypt. It was his favour that made the musicians' guild accept her back into the fold. In addition, Kalthoum had been a dedicated Egyptian patriot since the time of King Farouk.
Her songs deal mostly with the universal themes of love, longing and loss. A typical concert consisted of the performance of two or three songs over a period of three to six hours. In the late 1960s, due to her age, she began to shorten her performances to two songs over a period of two and a half to three hours. The duration of her songs in performance was not fixed, but varied based on the level of emotional interaction between the singer and her audience. A typical improvisatory technique of hers was to repeat a single phrase or sentence of a song's lyrics over and over, subtly altering the emotive emphasis and intensity each time to bring her audiences into a euphoric and ecstatic state. Thus, while the official recorded length of a song such as "Enta omri" (You Are My Life) is approximately sixty minutes, a live performance could extend to many hours, as the singer and her audience fed off each other's emotional energy. This intense, highly personalised creative relationship was undoubtedly one of the reasons for Kalthoum's tremendous success as an artist.
In 1967 Kalthoum was diagnosed with a severe case of nephritis. She gave her last concert at the Palace of the Nile in 1973. Tests at that time indicated that her illness was incurable. She moved to the United States, where she benefited for some time from the advanced medical technology, but in 1975, upon re-entering her home country, she required hospitalisation due to declining health. She died in a Cairo hospital on 3rd February 1975.
Her funeral was attended by over four million mourners – one of the largest gatherings in history – and descended into pandemonium when the crowd seized control of her coffin and carried it to a mosque that they considered her favourite, before later releasing the coffin for burial.
El Hob Kolo
Oum Kalthoum Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
وزماني كله انا عشته ليك زماني كله
حبيبي قول للدنيا معايا ولكل قلب بدقته حس
حبيبي قول للدنيا معايا ولكل قلب بدقته حس
يا دنيا حبي وحبي وحبي ده العمر هو الحب وبس
وسقيني واملا واسقيني تاني من الحب منك من نور زماني
اسقيني يالي من يوم ما شفتك حسيت كأني اتخلقت تاني
روح قلبي ياحياة ايامي روح قلبي ياروح قلبي
انا كنت ايه فبل ما شوفك انا كنت ايه كنت ايه
وكنت عايش ياحبيبي ايامي ليه ايامي ليه
طريق حياتي مشيته قبلك في ليل طويل
لا قلب جنبي يحس بيه ولا طيف جميل
ولما شفتك اول ما شفتك
بكل شوق الدنيا لأتني مشدود اليك مشدود اليك
وبكل حب الدنيا ناديتك وجريت عليك جريت عليك
ناديت ناديت علدنيا بحالهة ولكل قلب بدقته حس
يا دنيا حبي وحبي وحبي ده العمر هو الحب وبس
وسقيني واملا واسقيني تاني من الحب منك من نور زماني
اسقيني يالي من يوم ما شفتك حسيت كأني اتخلقت تاني
ده الهوى العطشان العطشان العطشان العطشان في قلبي بيندهك يا ارق من نسمة واجمل من ملك
يا ارق من نسمة واجمل من ملك
انت روحي وكل عمري ونور حياتي يا حياتي
انت روحي وكل عمري ونور حياتي يا حياتي
ايه انا بالنسبه لك
ده الهوى العطشان العطشان العطشان العطشان في قلبي بيندهك يا ارق من نسمة واجمل من ملك
يا ارق من نسمة واجمل من ملك
حبيبي دنا مخلوق مخلوق عشانك يادوب عشانك عشانك انت
وقلبي قلبي عاش على لمس حنانك يادوب حنانك حنانك انت
حلوة حلوة الايام حلوة الاحلام
حلوة حلوةياسلام حلوة
The song El Hob Kolo by Oum Kalthoum is a love song that expresses the totality and intensity of love. The song begins with the repeated line "Al-Hob Kolo Habayto Feek" which translates to "All of my love, I have loved in you." The singer tells her lover that her entire life has been lived for him, and she urges him to acknowledge their love to the world by saying "My love, tell the world that you are with me, and that every beating heart knows the feeling."
The singer's devotion to her lover is further expressed in the line "I felt like I was born again when I first saw you." She describes how her life was empty before she met him and how he has filled it with light and passion. As the song progresses, she asks him to quench her thirst for love and fill her up again with his love, admitting that she is addicted to his love.
The final section of the song praises the sweetness of life and dreams, thanking the lover for the happiness he has brought into her life. The song repeats the Arabic word "Helo" which means beautiful or sweet, emphasizing the beauty of life and love.
Overall, El Hob Kolo is a powerful love song that expresses the depth of feeling between two people and the transformative power of true love.
Line by Line Meaning
الحب كله حبيته فيك الحب كله
I loved all the love in you, all of it
وزماني كله انا عشته ليك زماني كله
I lived my entire life for you, and all the time there ever was
حبيبي قول للدنيا معايا ولكل قلب بدقته حس
My love, tell the world that you're with me and every heart beats with feeling
يا دنيا حبي وحبي وحبي ده العمر هو الحب وبس
Oh world, my love, my love, my love, this life is only about love
وسقيني واملا واسقيني تاني من الحب منك من نور زماني
Sustain me, fill me up again, with love from you, from the light of my life
اسقيني يالي من يوم ما شفتك حسيت كأني اتخلقت تاني
Quench my thirst, my love, from the day I saw you, I felt like I was reborn
روح قلبي ياحياة ايامي روح قلبي ياروح قلبي
You're the soul of my heart, the life of my days. You're my heart and soul
يا حبيبي يا ملاك احلامي روح قلبي ياروح قلبي
Oh my love, you're the angel of my dreams. You're my heart and soul
انا كنت ايه فبل ما شوفك انا كنت ايه كنت ايه
What was I before I saw you? Who was I, who was I?
ولما شفتك اول ما شفتك بكل شوق الدنيا لأتني مشدود اليك مشدود اليك
And when I first saw you, with all the world's longing, I was drawn to you, drawn to you
وبكل حب الدنيا ناديتك وجريت عليك جريت عليك
With all my love, I called to you and ran towards you, ran towards you
ناديت ناديت علدنيا بحالهة ولكل قلب بدقته حس
I called out to the world in ecstasy, with every heart beating with emotion
ده الهوى العطشان العطشان العطشان العطشان في قلبي بيندهك يا ارق من نسمة واجمل من ملک
This ardent love, thirsty love, burning in my heart, consumes me. You're more delicate than a breeze and more beautiful than a king
انت روحي وكل عمري ونور حياتي يا حياتي
You're my soul, my entire life, and the light of my life, oh my life
ايه انا بالنسبه لك
What am I to you?
حبيبي دنا مخلوق مخلوق عشانك يادوب عشانك عشانك انت
My love, all that I am was created only for you, only for you, for you alone
وقلبي قلبي عاش على لمس حنانك يادوب حنانك حنانک انت
And my heart, my heart, lived only through the warmth of your touch, only through your tenderness, your tenderness alone
حلوة حلوة الايام حلوة الاحلام
Sweet, sweet are the days, sweet are the dreams
حلوة حلوة ياسلام حلوة
Sweet, sweet, how wonderful!
Contributed by Audrey G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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