Ghalia Benali sings Oum Kalthoum

A subtle sifting through the Kalthoum songbook. Raised in Tunisia but now living in Brussels, Ghalia Benali has explored many fields of Middle Eastern and European music (and areas in between). With this album, Benali dives into the repertoire once recorded by the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum (1900-1975). There is plenty of lesser known material from Kalthoum’s early years, in the 1930s. But the pièce de resistance on this album is Benali’s interpretation of one Kalthoum’s epic signature songs, Al-Adal’ from 1966. One of the striking aspects is that Benali performs it with an oud (lute), a double¬bass and a darbuka (goblet drum) as accompaniment, while the song dates from the period when Kalthoum was using ever-larger, almost symphonic Oriental orchestras.

The Egyptian singer Amai Maher has been making waves with live performances of Kalthoum covers, accompanied by the same kind of large orchestra. The whole Arab world agrees that Kalthoum was unique and inimitable. So apart from a sort of restorative experience, what do the numerous copycat singers add? Ghalia Benali’s intimate approach is much more personal. In addition to the minimalist ensemble, Benali’s introverted but highly explosive low-register voice makes this album stand out as a genuinely innovative addition to the catalogue of recordings of these songs.