November 21, 2004

MY first brush with Arabian ‘entertainment’ happened one lazy December evening in 1998, as I wound up at a fast-food joint after returning from a beach party in Muscat. Having barely sat down for a meal, with a beautiful Arabic score in the background, it struck me that all eyes were riveted to one corner of the hall where a little girl, all of five or maybe six, was a picture of rhythm and exotic movement.

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes! I have yet to come across such prodigious exhibition of uninhibited dance talent. You could excuse me for being floored for life. Perhaps, it would be a sweeping generalization to conclude that the Arabic music-and-dance combination has more finesse than any other contending mix in the world, but certainly no other variety offers the kind of rhythm and exotic movement than the Arabic amalgam.

The more you move in the region the more you are convinced of the richness of Arabian entertainment. Even Maria, my better half, who can give someone from home like Hadiqa Kiyani a run for any hip number, asks me in a slight state of Rubicon why almost every other Arabic score sounds like a hit? Talk about universal beat. Thanks to the global invasion of satellite culture, Arabian entertainment, too, is spreading its tentacles far and wide. According to one estimate, some 130 million Arab speakers spread over the four continents currently partake their choice from an eclectic entertainment running into more than 90 satellite TV channels. And this does not include uncountable non-Arab fans like us.

But the Arab world, making up largely of the Middle East, remains mostly tuned to free-to-air satellite TV channels broadcasting mainly from Egypt, UAE and Lebanon. Brand Jordan and Kuwait, too, have made their mark. The Arab Advisors Group estimates the number of satellite audience in the Arab world to be around 71 million viewers.

The big question is: How is the popularity and availability of satellite TV changing the way Arabs see themselves and the rest of the world given that in the past state interests had an unsettling effect on creativity? Interestingly, there is now a sea change governing popular entertainment. As a consequence, the Arab entertainment industry is thriving, as evidenced by its popularity.

This growth, in part, is fuelled by advancement in technology. The decrease in cost of receivers and decoders, increase in free-to-air channels as well as the surge in specialized channels — music and sports hog the most limelight (apart, of course, from news) — has led to an expanding viewership base.

Another important reason is the poor alternative offered by state-owned channels, which have a forgettable entertainment quotient, in comparison to the relatively well-rounded private enterprise.

Pan-Arab orientation is clearly the benchmark of success as far as entertainment in the Arab world is concerned. By now, we all know the kind of trail-blazing role played by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera, which has become arguably the most sought-after TV news channel in the world for exclusive coverage — even though some in the West argue that it is because of the peculiar nature of coverage related to the war on terror.

The Al Jazeera chutzpah has had a rub-off effect on the electronic media in the Arab world, with a certain boldness coming into play where public political discourse and culturally sensitive codes that govern women’s behaviour and dressing are concerned. The latter, with its liberal regime, has become more pronounced.

A good example of this is music videos. Female stars and models have become an intrinsic part of the media scene. Their popularity and social acceptance can be gauged from the growth of channels dedicated to music videos, which are highly stylized and boast slick production values. The crucial ingredient of music videos is the prevalence of scenes having sexual appeal or intimate overtones.

Lebanese channels like the immensely popular LBC have been instrumental in whetting the Arab world’s appetite for entertainment. Indeed, so routine have these racy offerings become that it made news when recently top Lebanese diva Nancy Ajram, who is a bit of a prima donna in the Arab world, had her few singles pulled from the air for alleged explicit content.

Nancy’s compatriot Haifa Wehbeh, former beauty queen, fashion model and now a singer, who has made it to the covers of more than a hundred magazines (besides being voted “the most beautiful woman in the world” by Arab fans in a survey), and model-turned-actress and singer Ruby (also voted the most popular Egyptian alongside footballer Khaled Beebo) are the other sex symbols for Arab youth. In a culture that is short on role models, such entertainment personalities are filling a cultural void and setting cultural trends.

The fact is that Arabs are undergoing a cultural metamorphosis with a striking western flavour. So, for instance, while it is true that Saudi females do not appear in Arabic music videos, Saudi singers do. Many Gulf females and their families watch such videos keenly, while Arab, specially Gulf investors, finance the productions and own the television channels that air them.

Saudi as well as regional and international brands advertise on the programmes or sponsor them. Small wonder even in the supposedly ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, local brands compete with their international counterparts for advertising space on the culturally relaxed programmes on LBC.

The Saudi-owned MBC2 is another instrument of popular approval across the region. Interestingly, Al Jazeera and MBC2 have comparable average daily viewer levels in many Arab countries, and enjoy top ratings. The popularity of MBC2 refutes the western notion that Arabs solely absorb anti-American sentiments voiced on Al Jazeera and other news channels.

Talking of entertainment, Arabic music videos have also given a new lease of life to radio, which manifests in the sale of multimedia mobile telephones — songs, ring tones and all. On the other hand, the growth of the entertainment sector has given a boost to the sales of print media as well, where even the serious newspapers now dedicate substantial coverage to the lives and activities of music video stars.

But as Arab media watcher Jihad N. Fakhreddine asserts, the dissemination of a more open and promiscuous culture in the Arab media is still based on visuals, without any written or oral text. Taken out of their visual contexts, the Arabic lyrics may depict virgin love, Jihad says.

However, the other salient features of the entertainment stars are similar to the fare elsewhere — from the usual hype surrounding stardom including the closely followed personal lives to bitching about among female stars.

For instance, the new starlets on the Egyptian film scene are angry about the domineering role played by four leading heroines — Mona Zaki, Hanan Turk, Mena Shalby and Hala Sheiha — who, they allege, do not allow room for new people to enter.

Shalby explains that she and her other famed partners of the quartet “can’t help the situation because we are the choice of directors and producers, who don’t find the others up to the mark.” On the rebound, she also complains that actually the quartet is suffering “because it is always men who get to play the lead role with us as second fiddles.”

Similarly, when Jordanian Rania Al Kurdi walked out of Superstar, a popular talk show, recently, she was rumoured to have fallen out with her costume designer.

Affairs of the heart, separations and divorces are the other staple diet in the Arabian entertainment world. Someone like Nancy Ajram keeps the gossipmongers busy with her antics. Recently, the Lebanese star made a headline-making appearance on a popular Egyptian television show, Al Bait Baitak, which is courted and coveted by prominent local artists. She even scrambled eggs on the live show to make a statement.

All this contributes to keeping Arabian entertainment alive and kicking.

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)