Salma ya Salama

Sayed Darwish, born in Alexandria in 1892, was working as a bricklayer when the manager of a touring theatre troupe heard him singing for his fellow workers and hired him on the spot. Years of failure in singing cafés followed, until in 1918 he moved to Cairo and turned to musical theatre. There he wrote operettas for the comedian Naguib el-Rihani, with words by the poet Badi' Khayri, and their shows grew popular partly because they alluded to the politics of colonial Egypt around the 1919 revolution against British occupation. Salma ya Salama came out of that partnership, composed by Darwish to Khayri's lyrics for a play staged by el-Rihani's company. It is a light, joyous song, but under the cheer it speaks of Egyptians who feel like strangers far from home, who accept life whether rich or poor, and who show patience through war while hoping for peace. Like many of Darwish's theatre tunes, it passed into Egyptian folklore, part of a body of songs known across the Middle East. Darwish himself did not live to see it: he died in September 1923, aged just 31. Half a century later the song found a second life. In 1977 the singer Dalida recorded it in Egyptian Arabic and then in French, and her version became better known in the Arab world and Europe than the original, later appearing in German, Italian and Spanish as well. Many singers have since reworked it, from Alabina to Jean-Michel Jarre. A melody written for a Cairo stage a century ago still sounds like an invitation to sing along.