Manama: Bahrainis on Tuesday hailed Google's honouring of Arab superstar Abdul Halim Hafez by a Doodle as it marked his birthday.
"I think that it was very nice of Google to pay tribute to the music giant," Maram Mohammad, a PR specialist, said. "We all love Abdul Halim and seeing that search giant Google care about him is really wonderful," she said.
For Ebrahim Ahmad, the gesture by Google is a positive step towards reinforcing ties between cultures and civilisations.
"Google has shown that it does care about Arab celebrities. I recall they recently had a Doodle when Arabs celebrated the birthday of Ibn Khuldoon. Such steps are genuine leaps towards open communication without discrimination or bias," he said, as he smoked his shisha.
Osama Kamal said that he highly appreciated the tribute to the Arab superstar.
"What Google did was much more than most Arab dailies," he said. "At a time when singers get their way mainly through public relations and display of skin, Abdul Halim had a wonderful voice and great songs that are at the top more than three decades after his death," the Arabic teacher said.
Abdul Halim, born on June 21, 1929, is among the most popular and celebrated singers in the Arab world.
An actor, conductor, music teacher and movie producer, Abdul Halim, nicknamed affectionately as the Tan Nightingale, is one of the greatest Arab music artists along with Om Kalthoom and Mohammad Abdul Wahab. He died on March 30, 1977.
