Her decision to retire, aged 38, came with the failure of her last film, "Al Habib al Majhoul" (The Unknown Lover), the banning of her song, "With Unity, Order, and Work", praising the Free Officers 1952 revolution and the outbreak of the 1956 war. Despite the immense popularity of her films her singing career was over-shadowed by Um Kulthum who dominated Egypt's musical landscape and, in 1949, had become president of the Musicians' Union. In the early 1950s other singers also popular with younger audiences, such as Abdel al Halim Hafez, did not get the same exposure on the radio as Um Kulthum.