The Arab world's equivalent of American Idol, Star Academy, concluded in April with the crowning of Saudi Arabian singer Hisham Abdul-Rahman as "Star" on the Lebanese LBC network.
I love the awkward enthusiasm of the announcement of Hisham's victory on the English version of the show's website:
"Congratulations and celebrations when everyone knows that you're a Star. Congratulations and jubilations we want the world to know you are happy as can be. Everybody has got moments in their lives when the sun shines down so warm and good. Hisham, this is one of those times, when life unfolds the way it should. You never know just how it's going to go, so the best that you can do is do your best because you passed the test. It’s time for a celebration, being a Star, what a sensation!!!"
What a sensation, indeed. Imagine American Idol carrying on through what this show did: it was delayed for a week when former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Harriri was assassinated on the 14th February, and three times in a row in March and April, the weekly concert was interrupted by explosions.
The show — with 16 young male and female performers from all over the Arab world being filmed 24 hours a day living and training together as they competed for a recording contract — was an enormous hit throughout the region. Over 80% of Lebanese teens tuned in, for example.
What tremendous news: a silly, shallow, modern reality show with aspirants seeking so temporal and decadent a thing as stardom, and an audience going nuts over the process. Where there is pop culture mania, fads and celebrity there is hope against political and dogmatic religious oppression.
Saudi religious scholars certainly took note, condemning the hoopla in the strongest terms on the Saudi news site Al-Wifaq. "Young Arab men and women were put together in an abominable state of mingling of sexes ... exposing themselves, singing, dancing and corruption ... What happened is considered a crime against Islam and a great offence against the Islamic nation."
When Hisham triumphantly returned home with an appearance at a Riyadh shopping mall in late-April, admirers rushed to shake his hand and girls even — zounds — kissed him. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice went bananas and put him on a plane to Jeddah.
"A number of youths and girls crowded round him and deviant behavior occurred. Then the commission removed him from Riyadh on the orders of the governor," the sheikhs wrote in the Al-Wifaq statement. "We call on this youth, and all who took part with him ... and all who gave media coverage or prizes or votes, we call on all of them to repent before God."
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Fine reporting, Eric.Sex,rock & jobs - the best way to make a change.
Paula Abdul's next stint perhaps?
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks Aaman, Paula would make a great ambassador!
3 - SFC SKI
NOt a lot of real rock in the ME yet, it's like that bad Manilow style stuff.
4 - Aaman
They've lost out on one generation, thanks to the oil boom - they'll catch up.
India did too, thanks to semi-socialism. Look at the scene now:)
5 - Eric Olsen
it's the vitality displayed by expending energy on stupid pop culture stuff that is the key here
6 - Bennett
A ray of hope, a sign of better times ahead? I do hope so. Great job Eric, we need more news like this.
7 - Eric Olsen
thanks Bennett, I think it a peek into a fundamental shift in the culture and very much a sign of changing times
8 - SFC SKI
The comments in the blog you cite are really interesting, and I am glad to read the varying opinions that are there.
AS I have said before, the Muslim Arab world is no more easy to pigeonhole than any other people, region, or religion. There is hope.
9 - jarboy
keep in mind that the real jihad is not muslims against the west, but fundamentalist muslims against moderate muslims. come to think of it, isn't soemthing similar taking shape in the usa? christian fundamentalists against religious moderates?