Divas, d'Oum Kalthoum à Dalida, invites you to discover legends of Arab music and cinema from 1920 to the 1970s. Oum Kalthoum, Asmahan, Fayrouz, Warda or Sabah, Hind Rostom, Samia Gamal, Tahiyya Carioca, Faten Hamama, Souad Hosni, Dalida and so many others, all contributed to an artistic revolution that took place in Egypt and Lebanon. Powerful, emancipated, avant-garde women... Who are these icons who were the voices and faces of the Arab world? What issues of political, social and intellectual history lie behind their lives and careers? These personal trajectories raise questions as fascinating as those of unveiling, of women's bodies in society, of their place in cultural enterprises, of their role and image in pan-Arab ideology, and of the links between feminism and art... This book offers a unique look at women artists in the Arab world. 21 articles by experts, historians and sociologists shed new light on these issues. More than 200 illustrations pay tribute to the aestheticism of a time, the golden age of Arab song and cinema, which continues to nourish the most contemporary creation... From Cairo to Beirut, via the Maghreb and France, this catalog (re)discovers exceptional personalities whose legacy is still a source of inspiration for many artists today.