CAIRO: She is American, speaks little Arabic, and has never been to Egypt. But Jennifer Grout, 23, has wowed Middle Eastern audiences by reaching the final of Arabs Got Talent — the spin-off of the British and US shows of similar names — with a near-perfect rendition of a song by Egypt’s best-loved singer, Umm Kulthum.

Born and raised in Boston, Grout’s Arabic accent has inspired debate about whether she is merely pretending to be a westerner.

Her fellow contestants are from different parts of the Middle East, and include Mayam Mahmoud, 18, billed as Egypt’s first hijab-wearing rapper.

“There’s lots of rumours that I’m not actually American,” Grout said. “I’m very flattered by that because it means I’m doing something that is ... unbelievable.”

When auditioning, Grout struggled for credibility. She remembers sitting down with her Oud (a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in the Middle East and the forerunner of the lute) in front of an audience in Lebanon, where the show is filmed, and where “nobody took me seriously”.

“What’s your name?” asked one of the judges, Egyptian actor Ahmed Helmy, in Arabic. “Sorry?” replied Grout, in English, to titters from the crowd.

But after she started singing, the atmosphere changed. “When I played the first line, the audience started chuckling. But I kept going, and after about 30 seconds, everyone changed their minds and started supporting me.”

Grout is through to the show’s final on Dec 7, with the judges won over by her version of Umm Kulthum’s Baeed Annak, a love song that is tough even for native-speakers to master.

“You don’t speak a word of Arabic,” another judge, Lebanese singer Najwa Karam, told her, “and yet you sing better than other singers.”

The daughter of musicians, Grout grew up playing the violin and piano, and only became interested in Arab music in 2010, while at university in Canada. After reading about the Lebanese diva Fairouz, Grout was intrigued, and began singing and playing the Oud in a Syrian cafe in Montreal. She later moved to Morocco to immerse herself in its music scene, using translation websites to get a sense of each song’s meaning.

It was after recording two CDs that a friend of a friend in Morocco suggested she audition for Arabs Got Talent. Television talent shows were never on Grout’s horizon in America. “One of my aunts was a big fan of shows like American Idol and was always bugging me, as a 12-year-old, to sing some pop song,” Grout said. “But I didn’t even watch those kinds of shows.”

Now Grout may win one - and she has already won over hearts and minds. “We have always been following and imitating the west,” said Najma Karam, one of the show’s judges. “This is the first time someone who’s not related in any way to the Arab world — an American who doesn’t speak the language — performs in Arabic.”

By arrangement with the Guardian