Egyptian soprano Fatma Said fronts Abdel Wahab tribute in London

Egyptian soprano Fatma Said will sing the songs of famed Egyptian crooner Abdel Wahab at a concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London this week.

The concert at the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane on Sunday is the capital's first major tribute to the singer and composer in 40 years. His music was last played in the city’s Royal Albert Hall.

Abdel Wahab was a pioneer of popular Arabic music in the early 20th century, known for his patriotic songs and iconic songs written divas such as Umm Kulthum and Fairouz. His repertoire of songs and his “musical revolution” were instrumental to shaping an era of music in the Arab world that is now regarded as a golden age.

For the first time, his work has been adapted to a classical music orchestra, which will be led by the Egyptian conductor Nader Abbasi. The London Arab Orchestra will also play at the concert.

Abdel Wahab playing the oud at his home in Cairo in the 1980s. AFP

It is the first time that the opera singer Said will sing a whole concert in Arabic dedicated to Abdel Wahab. She is better known for her renditions of Western operatic composers such as Maurice Ravel and Gustav Mahler.

“I’m presenting myself in a different light,” she told The National. “I do not have the traditional voice (for Arabic music). I’m not an Umm Kulthum.”

Instead, she has learnt to sing Abdel Wahab in her own way – for audiences more familiar with Western classical music. “I put Abdel Wahab in my voice and my vocabulary, in a way that still feels familiar to the audience,” she said. Said has sung Abdel Wahab and other Egyptian crooners of the period to audiences in Europe and more discerning ones in Bahrain and Egypt – but never as part of a full Arabic concert.

“I’m so happy it’s Abdel Wahab, he’s my absolute favourite composer. I listened to him as a child, my father introduced me to his music,” she said.