JEDDAH: Arab pop star Nancy Ajram has teamed up with Cartoon Network for the five-part series “The Powerpuff Girls: Power of Four,” becoming one of the first celebrities to have voiced a Cartoon Network character in the Middle East.
She will voice the fourth Powerpuff Girl, Bliss, the long-lost teenaged sister of the other three Powerpuff Girls, in the regional version of the popular American animated TV series.
Ajram said it enabled her “to re-live some of my happy childhood memories in the process. I felt that I was very much in the heart of the action, helping the Powerpuff Girls save the world.”
“It was a great experience for me to participate in the dubbing of The Powerpuff Girls, particularly as it marks the first time that a celebrity has voiced a Cartoon Network character in the Middle East region,” she said.
Ajram completes the line-up of 15 super-powered celebrities across international markets to lend their voices to the fourth Powerpuff Girl, including Britain’s Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon, who will voice Bliss for the UK.
“The Powerpuff Girls” has been one of the most popular programs on Cartoon Network and has its own dedicated YouTube channel in Arabic to cater specifically to its fans in the region.
The series began airing on Thursday.
The Lebanese singer, who is one of the most powerful figures in Arab pop, will perform at du Forum on the UAE’s Yas Island on Dec. 2.
Nancy Ajram teams up with Powerpuff Girls to save the world
Nancy Ajram teams up with Powerpuff Girls to save the world
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
