Private struggles and cultural impact of women behind golden age of Arab music and cinema in new exhibition

From Fairuz and Asmahan to Umm Kulthum and Sabah, the stars of the Arab world’s golden age of cinema and music remain treasured cultural icons. But how much is really known about the women behind the fame?

Diva: From Umm Kulthum to Dalida, showing at Beirut’s Sursock Museum, celebrates legendary singers, actresses and dancers while also unpacking the personal struggles they faced in a post-war, postcolonial Arab world.

Organised by Paris’s Institut du Monde Arabe, the multimedia exhibition arrives in Beirut following iterations in Paris, Amsterdam and Amman. The Beirut edition expands the show with new sections and material spotlighting figures including Sabah, Fairuz and Soad Hosny.

“In the 1960s, Beirut, alongside Cairo, was a capital of Arab music,” says Sursock Museum director Karina El-Helou. “Here, divas such as ‘Star of the East’ Umm Kulthum, who gave an unforgettable performance at the Baalbeck International Festival, and Fairuz – ‘Ambassador of Lebanon to the Stars’ – played a decisive role in shaping modern Arab music.

“Artists such as Warda and Asmahan, both of Lebanese origin, also helped bring music to the international stage, so it feels important that this show comes to Beirut,” she adds.

Entitled Divas, the exhibition includes many of the singers' personal effects. Photo: Sursock Museum

The exhibition is structured into four sections. The first traces the pioneering women and avant-garde feminists of cosmopolitan Cairo in the 1920s, whose activism and cultural work laid the foundations for the artistic boom that followed. These include Huda Sha’arawi and Siza Nabrawi, founders of Egyptian Women’s Union, alongside actress and theatre producer Fatima al-Youssef, who helped revive Egyptian theatre during the interwar period.

The second section focuses on divas with golden voices from the 1940s to the 1970s – Umm Kulthum, Warda, Fairuz and Asmahan. In Beirut, this section has been expanded, particularly around Fairuz, with newly added archival material including costumes, videos and photographs.

Among the highlights are original dresses worn by Fairuz in The Days of Fakhreddine (1966) and Qasidat Hob (Poem of Love) (1973), both staged at Baalbeck International Festival. The garments spotlight the work of Lebanese-Armenian couturier Jean-Pierre Delyfer, alongside Lebanese designers Marcel Rabez and Samia Saab – all pioneers of Lebanese fashion.

Rare video footage from Fairuz’s South American tour in Rio de Janeiro in 1961, a documentary excerpt produced by Parker & Co about her US tour in 1972, and previously unseen photographs have also been added.

Original costumes worn by Umm Kulthum are among the exhibition's highlights. Photo: Sursock Museum

“All these come from the archives of Sabri Cherif, son of the late film director Mounjed Cherif, who was also the right-hand man of the Rahbani brothers and contributed significantly to the history of Lebanese folklore at Baalbeck,” El-Helou says.

The section devoted to Sabah further explores her cultural impact on both the arts and fashion, celebrating her daring elegance and costumes infused with Arab identity. Photographs and original dresses by the late designer William Khoury – who created about 400 dresses for her over the course of their l