Despite her death 48 years ago, the voice of the late Lady Kawkab al-Sharq, Umm Kulthum, resounds with new words and melody, written by the artist Amr Mostafa (44 years), within the framework of what he called “the revival of heritage.”
The song that Mostafa broadcasted, titled “I Think of You”, using artificial intelligence to obtain the sound of “Planet of the East”, sparked great controversy in the artistic circles and on social networking sites.
Mustafa said in statements to the “One Last Word” program: “I have been thinking for three years about what will happen to music in the future, then suddenly artificial intelligence appeared.”
He added, “Before the advent of artificial intelligence, I produced more than 30 works, but I was not satisfied with their implementation, as those who sang them could not communicate my feelings.”
However, he noted that the AI production satisfied his ambition about his songs.
In response to the criticism, Mustafa said: “There is a revolution taking place in the whole world in artificial intelligence, and any person in any profession may use and develop the musical revolution, but it will never be in the place of a person. The machine will develop work and may be used for a new musical production.”
He added, “All Arab peoples have to revive their musical heritage again, and here I used artificial intelligence in a beneficial way, not negatively. Umm Kulthum’s legacy stopped at a certain limit, but we saw new technology that showed us that we can develop this heritage through composers who already exist.”
However, producer Mohsen Jaber considered that this song and the use of artificial intelligence to produce new works by Umm Kulthum, “a violation of intellectual property.”
He said in statements to the same program: “Whoever approaches Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim and Abdel Wahhab, this is a dangerous area. He must have studied the subject more than once because the audience of these artists is of all levels.”
He added, “Umm Kulthum’s name and image have moral rights, and the law stipulates that they are moral and eternal and are not subject to a specific time, so he does not have the right to use her name or image.”
Jaber criticized the placement of Umm Kulthum’s image next to the song produced by artificial intelligence, adding: “He is making propaganda using her image, and this is illegal.”
He added, “Yes, it is his words, melody, and music, but why did he not name it Sawsan or Nawal? He cannot call the voice that it belongs to Umm Kulthum.”
For his part, Mustafa announced his retraction from using Umm Kulthum’s image and deleting it from his Instagram account, but he said, “The heritage revival project exists, but without using anyone’s image or name, in order to preserve the rights of others.”
In an interview with the “Cairo and the People” program, Mostafa said, “This is a new song from A to Z. The sound of the song belongs to the instrument, but the image belongs to the family. When I said that this voice was made by artificial intelligence, I announced that this is not the real voice of Umm Kulthum.”
He added, “When I used Umm Kulthum’s image, this was a non-commercial advertisement, and when I use the song commercially, I will not put Umm Kulthum’s image.”
He added that he intends to produce other new songs through artificial intelligence, for living singers.
And he considered that the matter is “a great project to revive and improve public taste. All the composers of these songs are no more than 24 years old, and they produced music as if it was played a long time ago, and the heirs may give us the right to use the image of Umm Kulthum, for example.”
And he considered that “the musical map changes and the rules of the game as well,” adding that “the song from artificial intelligence that we produce, if it succeeds, the singer himself may come to us asking us for a permit to sing it in one of his concerts, and I will stipulate that he sing it in one concert only and pay money for that, if The rules may change.”
Producer Medhat al-Adl said in an interview on the Last Word program, “in response to Jaber, that” there is no problem with him experimenting as long as he fulfills his moral and material rights, and then we have the judgment in the end. Why do we fear for Umm Kulthum from the experiments, her voice will not end, and there are proverbs Alive in front of us has already happened.”
