Heavy metal kaman wa kaman

On Augúst 14th 2006 i wrote a blog post that became one of my most read blog posts ever, called Reemerging heavy metal scene in Egypt .

I have been thinking about writing an update on the scene as it looks today, but today Arian Fariborz of the Deutsche Welle/Qantara beat me to it, Fariborz interview´s fellow blogger and friend, Hossam el-Hamalawy on the history and progress of the heavy metal scene to what it is today, here(Arabic) and here(German) - It´s still not available in English, but as soon as it is available , i will post the link. UPDATE: The link to the English language article Respectable Rebels can be found here.

another source about heavy metal in the Arab and Muslim World is Mark Levine´s Heavy Metal Islam, published last year. You could also look on his flickr account for images used in a campaign against metalheads in Egyptian media in 1997, when about a hundred people got arrested for listening to strange music and dress oddly, papers writing about kids worshipping Satan.

The headline is inspired by the fact that heavy metal finally seems to have become recognized as regular music, in terms of having venues to play at, as seen on the photo in the article , the Bibliotheca Alexandrina provided space for a festival,it´s also a testament to the fact that the genre stands stronger than ever after a tough time , and a strong come back, the fortunate choice of Bibliotheca Alexandrina as a venue is of course not always the case, rather the exception to the rule, but this is indeed a long way from secret venues, and an underground environment, though al Baron Palace is equally high class to Bibliotecha Alexandrina in my eyes, and i´m quite sure that al Baron Emplain himself is headbanging around in his grave just a few hundred meters away from the hindu inspired Palace.

The myths about the young satanists in 1997, is of course , just as many, as those of the creator of Heliopolis, Baron Empain, having won the land that Heliopolis was built upon in a card game with the Khedive is a myth, but it makes a good story, so did the ¨Satanistic metalheads¨ , but the kids paid a heavy price for that fantasy.

I´l leave you with a clip , that some of you will love, and most probably hate, it´s an instrumental version of an iconic song we all know, inta Oumri, but this time, with a whole different set of instruments than the traditional way we are used to hear it being performed. I give you the Palestinian-Israeli group from Acre, Khalas , with their interpretation of anta Oumri. For a better understanding of their take on the song and the incomparable Oum Kalthoum you might read this. Enjoy, or turn it off.

Oum Kalthoum : The fourth Pyramid

The new exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe opens today in Paris, France. The theme this time is Oum Kalthooum :The Fourth Pyramid.

If you live in the city of light or have the chance to visit Paris during 17 June - 2 November, make sure to add institut du Monde Arabe to your itinerary, just as our Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni did today(of course Paris is like a second home to him, unlike Israel) Besides Oum Kalthuom, the institute has one of the best views overlooking Notre Dame and a very good book shop!

Some furher information on the greatest musical diva ever can be found here.

Finaly i would like to point to an interview with the lady, just after her legendary concert at the Olympia in Paris made by Egyptian television in this You Tube-clip.

UPDATE: Here´s an article from al Ahram Weekly about the exhibition about the little girl from Tamay whom later in life, enchanted the audience around the Arab World, like no other, neither before, nor after her time.

Qawkab ash Sharq on NPR

NPR has a 13 minutes piece on Umm Kalthoum here. Interviews with the director of the Umm Kalthoum museum, Dr Walid Shousha and Virginia Danielson , whom has written Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt on the star, it´s also available in a DVD version here.

Danielson says that in order to describe the lady and how popular she was(and still is) you have to think of the musical tops of Ella Fitzgerald combined with the public persona of Elinor Roosevelt and the audience of Elvis Presley - it´s pretty much what i usually say when being asked the question of her popularity, though i would say that if you combine the popularity of Elvis, the Beatles and Michael Jackson(in the 80´s, before turning bad), then perhaps you will begin to grasp her popularity, callled the fourth pyramid, the only name that perhaps can match her in Egypt during the last 60 years of Egyptian history is Nasser´s. Maybe it´s no coincidence that their respective careers were so intertwined. Her career was huge prior to the 1952 revolution, but she would probably not have been able to transcend the boundaries of Egypt and become the Arab diva of her generation, if not for the parallel political change in the Arab world with Nasser as it´s undisputable leader from 1956-67, and the importance of the radio station Sawt al Arab, that in some way was the equivalent of al Jazeera today, in terms of impact. at the time, her song "Walla Zaman Ya Selahy" (Oh, My Weapon) was the national anthem from 1960 to the Camp David accords 1979.

Her most popular songs are anta oumri and al atlal, and she is the definite voice of her century in Egypt. More about her life and music can be found here, here, here and here.