Lebanese songstress Nancy Ajram and US DJ Marshmello have delighted thousands of fans with a performance of their summer hit Sah Sah at Riyadh's Gamers8 festival.
Ajram performed a set on Thursday night, which Marshmello joined her for.
The duo released the song on July 8 and have achieved international acclaim for the tune, which made it into the US Billboard Dance Charts two weeks after its initial release, becoming the first Arabic-language song to do so.
It’s also the first Arabic-language song to have made it into the Top 10 iTunes chart, and it has topped the iTunes electro-dance category in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Egyptian rapper Marwan Pablo also performed with the beloved singer, who made it a point to get off the stage and interact with the ecstatic crowd.
Marshmello, whose real name is Christopher Comstock, is famous for wearing a white helmet that resembles a marshmallow.
He hyped up the audience as he took to the decks and Ajram sang the playful lyrics to their history-making track.
“People are loving Sah Sah for more than one reason,” Egyptian composer Moody Saeed, who worked on the track with Ajram and Marshmello, previously told The National. “The lyrics are light and the words, sah sah, are fun and easy to remember. It’s also the music, the beat, it has a mix of East and West.”
The pair are not the only international names performing at Gamers8, an esports festival taking place in the Saudi capital.
Pop stars J Balvin and Amr Diab are some of the big music acts who performed at the opening ceremony, joining DJs Sebastian Ingrosso from Swedish House Mafia and Salvatore Ganacci at Boulevard Riyadh City on July 14 as part of celebrations that kicked off the eight-week event.
On July 21, Swedish DJ Axwell, Emirati-Yemeni singer Balqees and Egypt’s Mohamed Hamaki took the stage.
Still to come is rapper Russ, who leads a bill that will include DJ Alan Walker and Egyptian electronic act Disco Masr on August 18.
After impressing crowds at Expo 2020 Dubai last year and the Saudi F1 Grand Prix in Jeddah in February, Black Eyed Peas will return to the region to perform on August 25 alongside DJ Snake.
Gamers8 invites some of the world’s best players and teams to compete across popular titles, such as Rocket League, Dota 2, Fortnite, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and PUBG Mobile.
The total prize pool on offer is $15 million, one of the biggest in any esports competition.
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
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.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FINAL RECKONING
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg
Rating: 4/5
La Mer lowdown
La Mer beach is open from 10am until midnight, daily, and is located in Jumeirah 1, well after Kite Beach. Some restaurants, like Cupagahwa, are open from 8am for breakfast; most others start at noon. At the time of writing, we noticed that signs for Vicolo, an Italian eatery, and Kaftan, a Turkish restaurant, indicated that these two restaurants will be open soon, most likely this month. Parking is available, as well as a Dh100 all-day valet option or a Dh50 valet service if you’re just stopping by for a few hours.
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
