The Gulf’s music scene is expanding as independent artists use streaming and social platforms to reach audiences that once lay beyond their grasp. The shift has loosened the grip of traditional gatekeepers, giving emerging performers direct routes to listeners at home and…
Live entertainment has firmly re-established itself on the Gulf calendar, with arenas and open-air venues across the region competing to host international touring acts, comedy and family shows. For Bahrain, proximity to larger markets shapes both opportunity and competition as promoters map…
Film and streaming production is gaining momentum across the Gulf, supported by incentives, new studio capacity and rising global demand for stories from the region. The growth has opened opportunities for local writers, directors and crews who previously worked largely on imported…
Film music rarely gets top billing, but a festival in the region has decided to give it exactly that. The Riyadh Film Music Festival has turned the spotlight on the emotional power of movie soundtracks, celebrating an art form that shapes how…
Something is stirring in Gulf cinema. A new wave of Arabic films, made by regional talent and rooted in local stories, is reshaping what audiences see on screens across the Gulf, challenging the long dominance of imported blockbusters with work that speaks…
Few regions have built an entertainment industry as quickly as the Gulf. In the span of a few years, a part of the world once known for its restrictions on public performance has become a magnet for concerts, festivals, film, and live…
Historical anime usually has to choose between spectacle and accuracy. “The Elusive Samurai” keeps finding ways to hold both, and its second season makes the case more convincingly than the first did. The story picks up with Hojo Tokiyuki still working to…
The confirmation arrived the way most music news does now, through a photograph rather than a press release. A studio shot surfaced showing Elyanna with the masked Egyptian musician Tul8te and his longtime collaborator, producer Moataz Maady. The Palestinian-Chilean singer will feature…
Ask David Powell who Abu Dhabi is really competing against for a Saturday night and he does not name another Gulf city. “Our number one competitor is people’s living rooms,” he says. Powell is Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer at Ethara,…
JEDDAH: For most people, the human eye is simply a feature of the face. For Saudi photographer Ashraf Habib, it is a canvas of extraordinary beauty. “The Gate of Sights” exhibition, which concluded on Saturday at the Galleria Center in Jeddah, was…
