RIYADH: American country music sensation Toby Keith and Saudi legend Rabeh Saqer made history on Saturday at the Green Halls auditorium in the Saudi capital.
The concert was held to coincide with US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Kingdom, proving that the two countries do not only have strengthening relations in the arenas of politics, business, and diplomacy — but in the music and entertainment world too.
Saqer took to the stage first to kick off the concert to loud applause by fans, followed shortly by Keith who played a guitar duet with his Saudi counterpart. After the duet, Keith played his songs to the fans in attendance marking a monumental moment as Saudi fans cheered for country music on their own soil.
Yousif, a fan in attendance, said he could not believe he was attending a country music concert in Riyadh. He added that it took him back to time he was studying in the US.
Khalid said it was an amazing sight to see his favorite Saudi singer playing side-by-side with a country legend.
Abdulrahman said: “I’m having an amazing time. I want to see more events in the Kingdom like this concert.”
Musaad said that seeing Saqer perform in Riyadh in itself is a special treat for him. He also added that Toby Keith’s performance was an added bonus.
Turki said he had never been a fan of Western music but after listening to Keith’s performance he is going to start to dabble in the world of country music.
The concert, organized by MBC Group, was sold out.
Keith released his first four studio albums — “Toby Keith,” “Boomtown,” “Blue Moon” and “Dream Walkin” — in the 1990s.
Saqer, also known as “Abu Sager,” is celebrating his 35th anniversary as a singer this year. One of his hit songs is “Sahratna Al Laila.”
Toby Keith, Rabeh Saqer wow music fans in Riyadh during Trump visit
Toby Keith, Rabeh Saqer wow music fans in Riyadh during Trump visit
Oracle says data center outage causing issues faced by US TikTok users
WASHINGTON: Oracle on Tuesday said issues faced by US users of social media app TikTok are the result of a temporary weather-related power outage at an Oracle data center, after California Governor Gavin Newsom linked the issues to what he called the suppression of content critical of President Donald Trump.
“Over the weekend, an Oracle data center experienced a temporary weather-related power outage which impacted TikTok,” Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert said in an email.
A powerful winter storm struck much of the US over the weekend.
“The challenges US TikTok users may be experiencing are the result of technical issues that followed the power outage, which Oracle and TikTok are working to quickly resolve,” Egbert said.
On Monday, Newsom said his office was launching a review to determine if TikTok’s content moderation practices violated state law.
“Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” Newsom’s office had said.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, last week finalized a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC that will secure US data, to avert a ban on the short video app used by more than 200 million Americans. The deal was praised by Trump.
The joint venture has denied censorship, saying “it would be inaccurate to report that this is anything but the technical issues we’ve transparently confirmed.”
Each of the joint venture’s three managing investors — cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX — will hold a stake of 15 percent. The deal provides for American and global investors to hold 80.1 percent of the venture while ByteDance will own 19.9 percent.
The joint venture said on Tuesday it “made significant progress in recovering our US infrastructure with our US data center partner” but noted that US users may still face some technical issues, including when posting new content.
With more than 16 million followers on his personal TikTok account, Trump credited the app with helping him win the 2024 election.
Last week’s deal was a milestone for TikTok after years of battles with the US government over Washington’s concerns about risks to national security and privacy under Trump and former President Joe Biden.
