6. Umm Kulthum
She’s an Arabic singer, but she’s the only woman who was ever allowed to sing the Quran. She’s extraordinary, and has an ability to sound somehow so grounded, that it’s actually devastating. When she sings a couple of phrases, and the music just rises up out of it; she’s like a sleeping giant. And then the audience goes completely insane, and then it goes back, and then she’ll do another phrase. Oh my God! It’s just so beautiful, so special, so poetic. The thing I love about her is that you don’t need to know the language, what she’s singing for it to make you feel like you’ve been in some way privy to this very private, very sacred message.
I haven’t seen her live; gosh, that would have been amazing. I think she died in the ‘80s, but I do chase her around on YouTube sometimes. There’s footage of her with these dark sunglasses on, and this huge beehive onstage; she looks magnificent. She has this fantastic voice and it’s almost like without that, you really can’t define who you are, as a poet, for a country.
