The Nationalist Era

The Free Officers' revolution of July 1952 could have ended her career: some in the new order wanted the old regime's favorite singer off the airwaves. The story is often told that Gamal Abdel Nasser himself refused, asking whether they wanted all of Egypt to turn against them. Instead she became the republic's great voice. She sang for the revolution, the High Dam and the nation; her "Wallahi Zaman Ya Silahi" (1956) served as Egypt's national anthem from 1960 to 1979; and it was said that Nasser's speeches were scheduled after her broadcasts so they might inherit her audience. Artistically the era crested in the mid-1960s: "Hayyart Albi Maak" (1961) with Al-Sunbati; "Enta Omri" (1964), her long-awaited union with Mohammed Abdel Wahab that the press called the meeting of the clouds; the youthful hits of Baligh Hamdi; and "Al-Atlal" (1966), for many the greatest single achievement in twentieth-century Arabic song. The June 1967 defeat closed the era in grief — and transformed her sense of mission.