A unique exhibition, entitled "Umm Kulthum, the Fourth Pyramid" features the life, voice and influence of Umm Kulthum, one of the greatest singers the Arab world has ever known. It is taking place in Paris, at the Institute of the Arab World, and will run until Nov. 2. Umm Kulthum sang only once outside the Arab world - in 1967 in Paris at the Olympia.

At the show's opening, Egypt's Culture Minister, Faruk Hosni, said: "Umm Kulthum sang for everyone and touched city-dwellers as well as country-people, the educated and the illiterate. The entire Arab people were struck by her voice."

Umm Kulthum's recorded legacy is, without a doubt, among the greatest of the 20th Century. "Kawkab El Sharq" or "the Star of the East" as Umm Kulthum is also known, has been a significant influence on a number of musicians, both in the Arab world and beyond. Bob Dylan has been quoted as saying: "She's great! She really is! Really great!" Salvador Dali, Led Zeppelin, Bono are known to be among her admirers.

Her songs deal mostly with the universal themes of love, longing and grief. While many of her lyrics are sad, one of the main goals of her performances was to bring her audience into a state of "tarab," or musical ecstasy. The intensity of tarab depends mainly on the voice and the performance of the singer.

The length of Umm Kulthum's songs during her concerts was not fixed but depended on the level of emotional interaction between the singer and her audience. She was renowned for repeating a sentence of a song's lyric over and over and singing it each time in a different way. This brought her audiences into a euphoric and ecstatic state. She never sang a line the same way twice.

The official recorded length of a song like "Inta Omri" ("You Are My Life") is around 60 minutes but a live performance could extend to many hours as the singer and her audience fed off each other's emotions. This unique and intensely personalized creative relationship was without a doubt one of the reasons for Umm Kulthum's extraordinary success as an artist. Her relationship with the audience was pure magic; a small gesture with her hands sent them into a frenzy.

Umm Kulthum's famous monthly concerts took place on the first Thursday of every month and were known for their ability to empty the streets of one of the world's most populated capitals, as people rushed home to listen to her on the radio. A typical Umm Kulthum 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.

As time went by, she was labeled a national symbol, but she was careful not to identify herself with a particular political trend. Ni'maat Ahmed Fouad the author of two books on Umm Kulthum, remembers when, as a child, she heard the singer at a garden party in the Alexandria, say: "In Morocco, they asked me what I thought of Gamal Abdel Nasser. I told them I never discussed politics".

In 1967, she was diagnosed with a severe case of nephritis. She gave her last concert at the Palace of the Nile in 1973. Until the very end, Umm Kulthum would not let anyone see her ill: Not even members of her household, even if she stayed in her bedroom for a whole week. She was too concerned with keeping up her image as a strong woman. She died in the winter of 1975. During her funeral, attended by over 4 million mourners, one of the largest in history, the crowd seized control of her coffin and carried it to a mosque that was considered her favorite, before finally releasing it for burial.

President Nasser became one of her greatest admirers. In fact, at one point the Egyptian Musician's Guild rejected her because she had performed for the then deposed King Farouk of Egypt. When Nasser discovered she was no longer allowed to sing, he is reported to have said: "What are they? Crazy? Do you want Egypt to turn against us?"

The Paris exhibition is a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the singer. The exhibition features recordings of Umm Kulthum's legendary concerts. There are also video recordings, as well as the reconstitution of her living room, including an old radio where visitors can listen to her interviews, and photographs and other memorabilia.

Useful information

Address: Arab World Institute

1, Rue Des Fosses Saint Bernard

Paris

Opening hours: Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Entrance Fee: €5