Actresses who can sing a tune

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The 1940s bear witness to the rise of Egyptian cinema marked by the success of Misr Studio, which was created in 1935 by the economist Talaat Harb. Without any rival, Egyptian cinematography, Nilwood, flooded the Arab cinema market. With almost 225 musicals between 1945 and 1965, it is the «golden age» of musicals. Egyptian cinema is, before anything else, singing and dancing! The films sought to entertain the public: the scenarios were simple and served the musical episodes. Characters loved each other, fought and reconciled. This fructuous enterprise put exceptional actresses, singers and dancers under the spotlight. Samia Gamal and Tahiyya Carioca popularized the oriental dance. Laila Murad and Sabah excelled in the field of singing. Hind Rostom, Soad Hosny, Faten Hamama and many others shone onscreen, whether it be in musicals or melodramas.  Dalida herself got discovered thanks to Egyptian cinema, before flying out to France.  Cinema was also a political project, that exported an Egyptian social model to the entire Arab world. While musicals were omnipresent and offered mainstream roles, the filmmakers of Egyptian Realism will also count on these exceptional actresses to film their masterpieces.

Laila Mourad (1918-1995)

Abboudi Bou Jawde

Of Jewish origins, she started her career when she was fifteen years old. A singer with a wonderful voice, she was spotted by composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab who chose her in 1938 for his film Viva Love! Her photogenic beauty seduced the greatest of filmmakers. Togo Misrahi offered her the role of Laila that she interpreted in the eponymous series of films between 1940 and 1947. She then became the essential actress of musicals. In 1945, she married the filmmaker Anwar Wagdi and converted to Islam. This tumultuous relationship will be marked by three divorces and crowned four of the actress’s greatest films including Young girls’ flirts in 1949. Under the nationalist regime of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, her Jewish origins compromised her career. Despite her great popularity, Leila Murad decided to retire from the stage in 1955. She remains to this day one of the most beloved actresses of Egyptian cinema.

Sabah (1927-2014)

Abboudi Bou Jawde

Of Lebanese origins, Sabah is one of the greatest singers and actresses of the “golden age” of Egyptian cinema. She appeared in over a hundred films and interpreted over 3500 songs. She played in films alongside famous actors and musicians such as Farid al-Atrache, Abdel Halim Hafez, Farid Chawki and Rouchdi Abaza. In the 1960s, the Rahbani brothers wrote several musicals for her that would make the highlights of the Baalbek festival. Sabah also turned towards cabarets and recorded her single Allô Beyrouth which became the most seen clip on the scopitones of Paris’ Arab cafes, hence contributing to the spread of Lebanese music throughout the world. Extremely popular, she is also one of the first Arab artists to play at the Carnegie Hall in New York, at the Olympia of Paris and the Sydney Opera. Her smile, her golden locks, her sparkling look and her whimsical dresses turned her into an icon of the Arab world, whose generosity still lives in the heart of the Lebanese people.

Samia Gamal (1924-1994)

Abboudi Bou Jawde

She began her career in 1935, in Badia Massabni’s dance company. She quickly became a solo dancer and excelled in the field of oriental sharqi dance, contributing to the popularization of the genre. Her particular style blended influences from Hollywood, South America, and classical ballet. She formed a mythical couple, on screen and in real life, with singer Farid al-Atrach and filmed her greatest successes with him between 1944 and 1949. Her dance numbers in Madame la Diablesse (1949) by Henri Barakat still bear witness to her great technical mastery. After their separation, she embarked on a tour of the United States and definitely retired from cinema in 1972.

Faten Hamama (1931-2015)

Abboudi Bou Jawde

Beloved by the public, she is an icon of Egyptian cinema that she graced with her talent for half a century. She began her career at the age of seven and appeared in over fifty-seven films, until 1993. She acted for the greatest Egyptian filmmakers such as Ezzedine Zoul-Fikar, Henri Barakat and Youssef Chahine. Able to interpret any role, she appeared in popular melodramas, musicals and realist, political films. She met actor Omar Sharif thanks to Youssef Chahine who reunited them in 1954 for Hellish Sky. They would go on to live a passionate love story and remain one of the most legendary couples of Egyptian Cinema.

Souad Hosni (1942-2001)

IMA

An emblematic actress of Egyptian cinema, she is known as the “Cinderella of Arabic screens”. She began her career at the age of fifteen in a musical comedy by Henri Barakat called Hassan and Naïma (1959) then appeared in seventy-five films, going from comedy to crime films and melodramas. This mischievous and smiling brunette came to perfectly incarnate the dreamed youth of the 1970s. She became famous in the entire Arab world thanks to Beware of Zouzou (1972). This musical remained in cinema theatres for over one year. She also is the icon of Egyptian Realism with two great roles in Cairo 1930 (1966) and The Second Wife (1967) by director Salah Abou Seif. This eternal romantic figure got married five times. Her tragic death in 2001 during her exile in London continues to fuel her legend.

Tahiyya Carioca (1915-1999)

Abboudi Bou Jawde

A legend of Egyptian oriental dance, she began her career in Cairo in Badia Masabni’s cabaret after fleeing her family at age twelve. There, she quickly became a solo dancer. She introduced rhythms from Latin America to her performances, notably the carioca (samba). That’s how she found her stage name. A dancer and an actress, she acted in more than a hundred and twenty films. She often played the roles of seductive women. A confirmed actress, she appeared at the summum of her art in The Leech, presented in 1956 at the International Film Festival of Cannes. She finally put an end to her dancing career in 1963 in order to direct her own theatre company. Her dance, characterized by a slow sensuality, made her famous; her beauty and volcanic character made her legendary. She married fourteen times and in 1953, was arrested and imprisoned three months for her communist activities.

Hind Rostom (1931 - 2011)

Abboudi Bou Jawde

Nicknamed “The Marilyn of the East”, she is known as one of the most beautiful women in the Arab world and one of its greatest actresses. She shot her first film, Flowers and thorns (1947), when she was sixteen, but had to wait until 1955 to land her first lead role in Girls of the night. A dancer and an actress of hypnotic beauty, she worked with the greatest directors and incarnated in 1958 the unforgettable Hanuma in Youssef Chahine’s Cairo Station. This exceptional actress was also a woman with character. From the pin-up to the lover, the mother to the devout, Hind Rostom played several roles and incarnated different sides of femininity. Comfortable with vaudeville and melodrama alike, she liked to put forward the range of her acting but it’s as a great seductress that she continues to shine in the hearts of Arab cinema’s lovers.

Dalida (1933-1987)

D.R. Orlando Productions

Iolanda Gigliotti was born to an Italian family in Cairo. In 1954, she won the Miss Egypt contest. This title opened the doors of Egyptian cinema for her. That same year, she played a vamp in the film A drink, a cigarette then a femme fatale in The Mask of Tutankhamun, the Gold of the Nile. She then left for Paris where she began a career in singing. It’s basked in glory that the international star covered an Egyptian folk song in 1977, “Salama Ya Salama”. Its success in France and the Middle-East was staggering. Her second recorded single “Helwa Ya Baladi” was met with similar enthusiasm. Dalida’s cinematographic dream will have to wait 32 years before coming to fruition, and Egypt will be the one to offer it. The great Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine chose her to be the heroine of the heartbreaking film The Sixth Day (1986). In Arabic, she played Saddika, a laundress, which was an unexpected opportunity to break with her glamorous singer persona.

Under the spotlights

These artists have imposed, perhaps without really foreseeing it, an aesthetic where the woman’s image on the big screen is a true revolution in itself: glamourous, sensual, ingenuous or whimsical… Their iconography has nothing to envy to American tabloids. Evolving in a bourgeois and cosmopolitan environment, these women have embodied a certain freedom in their careers and in their lives. The star system and the immense passion the public dedicated to them for decades mustn’t hide the sometimes harsh consequences of their public exposure. Behind the lights and the glitter, all have revealed issues tied to their lifestyle choices and the moral judgment that some did not hesitate to express.

The 1970s: the end of a “golden age”

The severe consequences of the Six-Day War in 1967 and the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970 marked the end of the pan-Arab dream. The economic crisis that came after the two oil shocks (1973 and 1979), the Lebanese war (1975-1990) and the rise of a religious conservative movement also mark an important turn in the political, societal and artistic history of the Arab world. The cultural preeminence of Egypt and Lebanon then declined to the advantage of the Gulf monarchies whose power began to rise. From an artistic viewpoint, musicals disappeared and the great representants of Arabic music such as Umm Kulthum or Mohammed Abdel Wahab passed away. The closing of many cinemas in Cairo and Alexandria symbolizes the end of Egyptian cinema’s “golden age”.

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