YouTube sensations Adam Saleh and Sheikh Akbar are branching out into music.
They might be best known for the offbeat, hidden camera pranks which have seen them clock millions of fans across the world – but the duo are shaking things up and preparing to unleash their first single on the world.
Diamond Girl is set to be released on May 3, recorded alongside British-Bengali Mumzy Stranger as a featured artist.
The song is billed as being “Presented by True Story ASA” - the name of duo’s YouTube channel, which has attracted more than 750,000 followers.
Their most popular video, Ferrari Pick Up Prank, has clocked more than 13 million plays.
Despite the association, from the brief snippets currently circulating on the internet, about a guy with “money on his mind”, it’s not clear if this slab of R&B is meant to be funny, or just copping the conventions of the genre.
One thing we can be certain of however is that the duo will perform the song in Dubai in December. While a date and venue for that gig are yet to be confirmed, a representative of the funnymen has already promised the tune will be on the setlist, amongst stand-up, skits, rap battles and more.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
