Inta Omri

Umm Kulthum

An Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress that was born on

31 December 1898 in Egypt , she was given the honorific

title Kawkab al-Sharq (‘Star of the East’) , she is considered

a national icon in the middle east and  has been dubbed

“Egypt’s fourth pyramid” , for many people until this day Umm

Kulthum is considered as the gratest singer of all time.

Mohammed Abdel Wahab

An Egyptian composer , singer and actor that was born

on March 13, 1901 , he considered to be one of the most

innovative Egyptian musicians of all time and was given the

honorific title ” The Generational Musician” , Abedel Wahab

introduced Western rhythms to Egyptian songs in a way

appropriate to the known then very classical forms of Egyptian

songs .

The controversy

Although Umm Kulthum was the greatest singer and Abd al

Wahhab was the greatest composer at that time, they did not

work together due to a controversy caused by the rivalry that

was between them as they were called “The Enemies” in

the press and  no one ever thought that they would ever

cooperate.

The real controvery between Umm Kulthum and Abdel Wahab started in 1942 when Umm Kulthum wrote an article entitled “Why do I challenge Abd al-Wahhab?” , she said in her article that Abd al-Wahhab visited her at her house, proposing to her the idea of ​​establishing a union for musicians, and he swore that he would not establish it without  Umm Kulthum’s joining but on the condition that he must be the captain , she thought that Abd al-Wahhab’s assumption of the position of captain would mean that  he is a better singer than her, so she objected and wrote the article to tell the story.

Five days later, Abdel-Wahhab responded with an article and the press wrote more to make the controvery even bigger so that the presence of Umm Kulthum and Abdel-Wahhab in one place became like mixing oil with water.

The surprise

16 years later , in 1958 there were rumors about a joint work between the two giants , Abdel Wahab liked the idea and immediatly a poet called Ahmed Shafiq offered him the lyrics of “Inta Omri”, Abdel Wahab felt that the song would be appropriate for Umm Kulthum , then he sent Ahmed Al Hefnawi  a famous violinist in Umm Kulthum’s band to tell Umm Kulthum about the song and she agreed to start working on it.

Abdel-Wahab began to compose but unfortunately they both had some objections on the lyrics , and Abdel-Wahab had more than 5 years composing the song , as a result Umm Kulthum was desperate and convinced Shafiq (the poet) to find another composer to compose the song ,Abdel-Wahab heared the news from the press, so he got excited again , he composed the song and recorded it with his voice.

before finishing the song , Abdel-Wahab recorded him self , but this record has not been published.

President interference

During the revolution celebrations in 1963 President ِAbdel Nasser asked Umm Kulthum and Abdel Wahab about their song which the press writes that it had not appeared yet because of their controversies , Abdel-Wahhab had a diplomatic response that resolved the situation when he said that he had finished composing the song, and some minor details remain.

“Meeting Of Clouds”

On Wednesday, January 29, 1964, Umm Kulthum recorded the song “Inta Omri”, and it was the fourteenth day of Ramadan, Umm Kulthum and her band were fasting, but the recording took 12 hours from ten in the morning until ten in the evening, and she refused to let any musician leave the studio at breakfast time until she recorded the whole song at exactly ten o’clock in the evening.

That was the most difficult and well-known meeting the music has known , it was called “meeting of clouds”.

The legacy

The song has met a great success in the Middle East and all

over the world to this day , It has been sung by many singers

including israeli singers such as  Zahava Ben , Sarit Hadad and

the music has been played by many great musicians.

Zahava Ben

The Master of the Pan Flute Gheorghe Zamfir

A little surprise for you guys ,  I have translated the song’s lyrics so you can have fun listening to the words not only the music.

Thank you guys for reaching the last page of my book , I hope you enjoyed reading it , The most important thing is that you have seen a glimpse of the glory that these giants have created for the world.