Cairo’s Golden Age

The Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra transports you to Cairo’s golden era, a period in which the city blossomed into the cultural and artistic centre of the Arabic world. This vibrant period, spanning from the 1930s to the 1970s, was characterized by an unparalleled growth in film and music.
 
After the explosive growth of cities such as Casablanca, Baghdad, and Cairo, three decades followed that are considered the ‘golden age’ of Arabic film and music. Composers such as Baligh Hamdi, Zakariyyā Aḥmad, Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Riad Al Sunbati, played a vital role, by writing hit songs for icons like Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez and Warda Al-Jazairia. Thanks to Radio Cairo, their songs reached millions of listeners throughout the Arabic world.