This edited volume offers innovative perspectives on the study of music as cultural diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region often overlooked in such discussions. It offers an innovative contribution to the field of ethnomusicology, as well as political science and international relations, by highlighting the agency of non-state actors (local voices, communities, and grassroots organizations), thereby contributing towards de-centering the state, hitherto conceived as the chief player in cultural diplomacy. This volume is divided into four main parts organized along the following themes: 1. History and Historiography, 2. Migration, Diaspora, and Ethics, 3. Statecraft and Music Making, and 4. Affective and Sensorial Diplomacy. The perspectives offered in this volume offer a deeper exploration of bottom-up initiatives of cultural diplomacy through music, instead of the more usual analyses of top-down, state-directed programmes. Overall, the aim is to reconceptualize Middle Eastern, North African and Arab Gulf musical practices in their relationship to power and cultural diplomacy in order build a broader and pluri-dimensional account of these contentious relationships.

Expert writers present the major traditions of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, together with personal accounts of performers, composers, teachers and ceremonies. A special feature of this volume is the inclusion of dozens of brief essays that offer 'life stories' of typical music makers and their art, as well as first-person descriptions of specific music performances and events. Approximately 120 articles cover communities that preserve and enrich centuries-old traditions. The volume also explores such topics as political dissent, pop music genres, technology, poetry, gender and the historical and scholarly roots of Middle Eastern music.

Music in Arabia extends and challenges existing narratives of the region's distinctive but understudied music to reveal diverse and dynamic music cultures rooted in centuries-old heritage. Contributors to Music in Arabia bring a critical eye and ear to the contemporary soundscape, musical life, and expressive culture in the Gulf region. Including work by leading scholars and local authorities, this collection presents fresh perspectives and new research addressing why musical expression is fundamental to the area's diverse, transnational communities. The volume also examines music circulation as a commodity, such as with the production of early recordings, the transnational music industry, the context of the Arab Spring, and the region's popular music markets. As a bonus, readers can access a linked website containing audiovisual examples of the music, dance, and expressive culture introduced throughout the book. With the work of resident scholars and heritage practitioners in conversation with that of researchers from the United States and Europe, Music in Arabia offers both context and content to clarify how music articulates identity and nation among multiethnic, multiracial, and multinational populations.

Music in Arabia extends and challenges existing narratives of the region's distinctive but understudied music to reveal diverse and dynamic music cultures rooted in centuries-old heritage. Contributors to Music in Arabia bring a critical eye and ear to the contemporary soundscape, musical life, and expressive culture in the Gulf region. Including work by leading scholars and local authorities, this collection presents fresh perspectives and new research addressing why musical expression is fundamental to the area's diverse, transnational communities. The volume also examines music circulation as a commodity, such as with the production of early recordings, the transnational music industry, the context of the Arab Spring, and the region's popular music markets. As a bonus, readers can access a linked website containing audiovisual examples of the music, dance, and expressive culture introduced throughout the book. With the work of resident scholars and heritage practitioners in conversation with that of researchers from the United States and Europe, Music in Arabia offers both context and content to clarify how music articulates identity and nation among multiethnic, multiracial, and multinational populations.

Umm Kulthum, the "voice of Egypt," was the most celebrated musical performer of the century in the Arab world. More than twenty years after her death, her devoted audience, drawn from all strata of Arab society, still numbers in the millions. Thanks to her skillful and pioneering use of mass media, her songs still permeate the international airwaves. In the first English-language biography of Umm Kulthum, Virginia Danielson chronicles the life of a major musical figure and the confluence of artistry, society, and creativity that characterized her remarkable career.
Danielson examines the careful construction of Umm Kulthum's phenomenal popularity and success in a society that discouraged women from public performance. From childhood, her mentors honed her exceptional abilities to accord with Arab and Muslim practice, and as her stature grew, she remained attentive to her audience and the public reception of her work. Ultimately, she created from local precendents and traditions her own unique idiom and developed original song styles from both populist and neo-classical inspirations. These were enthusiastically received, heralded as crowning examples of a new, yet authentically Arab-Egyptian, culture. Danielson shows how Umm Kulthum's music and public personality helped form popular culture and contributed to the broader artistic, societal, and political forces that surrounded her.
This richly descriptive account joins biography with social theory to explore the impact of the individual virtuoso on both music and society at large while telling the compelling story of one of the most famous musicians of all time.
"She is born again every morning in the heart of 120 millionbeings. In the East a day without Umm Kulthum would have no color."--Omar Sharif