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Why did Um Kalthum never sing in Algeria? This question arose after I became interested in Umm Kulthum's voice, and it became an important pillar to my audio mapping, not just an echo between TV channels, videos, pictures, and the little myths that my Egyptian and Arab friends share on Facebook.

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Umm Kalthum in Algeria 
 

Before this, I had begun to discover the voice of this woman. Because celebrities and ‘big’ voices are often surrounded by legends, tales and lights, and reinforce in us that feeling that we came too late to this world, we find ourselves facing two options: We completely lose interest in the voice and its owner, and the second option is to reject the media that came with this sound, and to look for new ones. 

I think that Soundcloud has reconciled many in my generation who are born in the early 1990s, with the voices of the Arabic tarab, Umm Kulthum in particular. No movement, no video, only the sound - just like the less fortunate listeners, the days of her concerts, who were sitting in front of the radio - that happens as you watch the ripple of sounds, that orange line that goes up and down. 

 

I quickly abandoned the habit of listening to Enta Omri  (You are my life) and Alf Leila We Leila (A Thousand and One Nights) truly unaware that the serious listeners do not like these two songs, and navigated towards Ghulubt Asaleh  (Tired of Reconciling) and somewhat older ones like Ya Fayetni (You Left Me) , to afterwards reach at Baeed Annak (Far From You)... and it was here I had the shock!