Nancy show beats all odds
lakilsoft Noviembre 4th, 2007
DOHA • Despite opposition from conservative elements in the Qatari community, popular Lebanese pop singer Nancy Ajram’s shows have been a huge success here, says prominent social activist and businessman, Hassan Al Jefairi.
There is tremendous excitement in the community since Ajram landed here to perform and there is popular demand to extend her itinerary, Al Jefairi told this newspaper yesterday.
She is taking part in a play which is exclusively meant for children but one can see a lot of Qatari young men at her shows. It’s mostly people in the age group of 18-25 years who can be seen queuing up outside the venue of the show to buy tickets.
“You can have an idea about the excitement among Qatari youths from the fact that they are moving in groups in their neighbourhoods every day offering free tickets for Ajram’s shows to children, so they can accompany them,” said Al Jefairi.
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| Hassan Al Jefairi |
And what is being hotly debated by young men these days is whether Ajram’s hair is really curly or done up. “We Arabs consider young women with curly hair as very attractive,” he said.
Arabic-language satellite channels are airing more video clippings of Ajram’s these days than they did before and people, including children and grown-ups, are glued to their TV sets most of the time.
Some 80 per cent of Arabic TV networks are music channels, 15 per cent or so exclusively focus on films and serials and barely five per cent of them are devoted to news, said Al Jefairi.
Talking of conservatives, he said it was sad that their influence in society was of late growing menacingly. They want young men and children not to sing, dance or even listen to music. “This is absurd. Islam does not forbid singing nor does it ask you not to dance or listen to music.”
Muslims were great patrons of music in Al Andalus (Spain). History bears testimony to the fact that the Ottoman Sultans were highly fond of music and dance.
Studies show that music plays a crucial part in personality development and it can help a student master difficult subjects like science and mathematics. “We don’t encourage the teaching of music in our schools and we are paying a huge price,” said Al Jefairi.
Qatar needed 3,000 doctors last year and could produce only 24. The number of engineers required was 9,000. “But we had only 28 engineering graduates last year,” he pointed out. “Music develops your sensibilities. It has a soothing effect on your senses.”