RIYADH: Two women-only concerts will be held in Saudi Arabia in January, featuring Arab pop stars Nawal El-Kuwaitia and Assala Nasri, announced Rotana Audio & Visual Group, according to Sayidaty magazine.
“Rotana has received requests from the Saudi audience to hold concerts with several Arab singers,” Rotana CEO Salem Al-Hindi said during Kora Rotana, a Rotana Khalijia show.
He added: “The list of requested singers includes Wael Kfoury, Assi El-Helani, Najwa Karam, Elissa, Amr Diab, Mohamed Hamaki, Sherine, and Angham.”
Al-Hindi pointed out that the company is trying to meet the audience’s demands by organizing women-only and family concerts.
He also said that famous pop stars reached out to Rotana, including Fares Karam, El-Helani, and Kfoury, offering to perform concerts in Saudi Arabia soon.
The concerts come after Yemeni-Emirati singer Balqees Fathi and Lebanese soprano Heba Tawaji captivated the audience during female-only concerts in Jeddah and Riyadh, respectively, earlier this month.
Al-Kuwaitia, 51, is known as the Queen of Classic Music, Harp of Khaliji Song, the Gulf’s Fairooz and the Sun and Moon of Kuwait. She currently has 16 albums and has collaborated with many composers and poets.
Syrian music artist Nasri, 48, is one of the most popular singers in the Arab world and the daughter of late Syrian artist Mustafa Nasri. Nasri is famous for her strong, melodious voice. Her latest album “Mohtama bel Tafaseel” (Concerned with Details) released earlier this year.
Arab icons Assala Nasri, Nawal El-Kuwaitia set for Saudi concerts
Arab icons Assala Nasri, Nawal El-Kuwaitia set for Saudi concerts
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.
