Mick Hartley

It’s difficult to look past Egypt today.

Here’s Om Khaltoum, or Umm Kulthum, without a doubt the greatest of all Egyptian singers; indeed “the greatest female singer in Arab music history”. Live in Paris in 1967:

Never did my heart know a moment of happiness
or tasted in this world but bitter pain
So much of my life has gone
Only now have I begun to love my life…