Left Egypt around 1954 – a good time to leave if you weren’t racially/politically pure although she had been pure enough to previously win the Miss Egypt. Born in a lower middle class, mixed Cairo suburb Shoubra/Shubra - just north of the old museum to an Italian family that had come to Egypt in the late 19th Century..
Sang in Egypt and sold 170 million discs worldwide.
She was not unattractive:
Big hair, big jewels, lots of make up and sequins was her style – maybe she carried something of Egypt with her. She never had the demure/timid Egyptian look.
Her life was tragic, brief and troubled ending in suicide in 1987. Hanging around with Alain Delon probably wasn’t a good idea but with men she never chose well.
Her singing style and look may not have aged well and she was probably better at communicating emotion than hitting all the notes.
She has the dubious distinction of the first disco hit in France in 1973 where she butchered that old war-horse song J’attendrai.
In 1976, she recorded "Salma Ya Salama", based on a traditional Egyptian folk song which, due to its chart success was translated from Arabic into French, Italian, and German. It was amongst the first Ethnic fusion hits in the world. Part of the lyrics are based on an old Egyptian folk song about homesickness and celebrating the Egyptian nation. As was her Hebrew song "Hene Ma Tov" sung word-perfect.
In 1986, she played the role of a young grandmother in the Youssef Chahine film "Le Sixième Jour", for which she received favourable critical response. Her last live performance took place in Antalya, Turkey, in 1987.
Her songs in Arabic
She also sang songs which combined Arabic and flamenco styles which shows rare insight into the Arabic origins of Spanish dance and song.
Another Arabic themed song at
She recorded so many Arabic songs and it would be interesting to know how well those sold in Europe in the 60’s to the 80’s.
She came back a few times but by the 60’s I imagine she could see the direction of change – sophisticated, modern, cosmopolitan, western approaches were not ‘approved’ as Cairo began its 7 decades of decline into provincialism and cutting itself off from the world (except for the trashy aspects of western culture which they love).
Nowadays she is ignored in Egypt except that the French Institute in Cairo recently held a celebration of her life in a major exhibition. I think their promotional material was meant to send a message – how things have changed:
I assume their promotional material has diplomatic legal immunity – otherwise it would be illegal in Egypt and carry a jail sentence.
She wasn’t alone in moving from the Arab world to French chanson/pop. The also tragic Moroccan Frida Boccara won Eurovision and had a moderately successful career but stayed away from Arabic songs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Boccara. Another of many examples is Amina Annabi. Confusing to some would be the popular pop singer Ishtar who is of Egyptian and Moroccan background. She is unlikely to become popular in Egypt because she is Jewish. Late in life Umm went international and sang in a legendry Paris nightclub, Olympia, to sell out audiences and universal acclaim. It didn’t do her any harm that she dressed in Paris like a Chanel model. Callas thought her ‘incomparable’ and De Gaulle was a big fan. Scrubed up she also seemed to attract a bit of attention in Paris:
Dalida also performed at Olympia and showed French couturier taste:
The list of famous expatriates is very long and may have something to do with a recent study that showed that expatriate Egyptians were eight times more successful than those who stayed behind, although the point of this study was that ‘conditions’ in Egypt kept good people down and rewarded the mediocre – or worse. https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/rap ... ith-cities
A recent article on Dalida in al Ahram is remarkably ill-informed and inaccurate – even by their usual low standards. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/News/20784.aspx
