Haifa finally decides
Singer chooses production company for new album
Lebanese star Haifa Wehbe is no longer hesitating about her career decisions. She finally chose a production house for the new album that she has been preparing for more than a year. Recently, Egyptian producer Mohsen Jaber announced that Haifa signed with his company to release her album containing 12 songs this month.
This is not the first time that the two parties have cooperated. Haifa and Jaber, who owns TV channels Mazzika and Zoom, have worked together since she gave the channels exclusive use of her latest videos.
They all belong to one company called Alam Al Fan. Haifa is now preparing a huge concert to launch her cooperation with this company. She is also preparing for a television show that tells the story of her climb to stardom. After signing the contract in Egypt, Haifa flew to Dubai to take part in an exclusive watch exhibition.
Majida Al Roumi in Algiers
Lebanese singer Majida Al Roumi performed in Algiers last week during the Fennec D'or, a festival organised each year in the Algerian capital. Thousands of fans were present, among them a lot of officials and personalities, such as Algerian president Abdul-Aziz Bouteflika, and Jamila Bou Haidar, a famous resistance fighter who fought the French occupation and who faced jail and torture.
Before her performance, Majida had a press conference for more than 70 journalists. Majida told them about the difficult everyday life in Lebanon, the insecurity the Lebanese people are living. "My mission as an artist,'' she said, "is peace. It is defending human beings. For 33 years we are living wars in Lebanon.''
During her performance, Majida sang in the Algerian dialect with a chorus of young people. "I rehearsed a lot for thissong. It is the first time that I am performing on stage with young artists,'' she said.
Majida will be in Cairo today to study some movie offers.
Jawad shoots video in Lebanon
Singer ‘falls in love' in byblos
Despite the shaky situation, singer Jawad Al Ali came to Lebanon from the Gulf to shoot the video for his new song Al Ouyoun Al Sawahi. The video is directed by Fady Haddad and produced by Rotana. The clip takes place in the 18th century and Jawad Al Ali plays the role of a perfumer. He falls in love with a beautiful woman and decides to create a special perfume for her.
"The video was shot in one day in the Mediterranean city of Byblos but it took two months of preparation,'' director Fady Haddad said. The music of the song is composed by Al Ali himself and the lyrics are written by prince Mohammad Abdullah Al Faycal.
Myriam Fares: Contact lens girl
A reception was held in Beirut recently to announce that young Lebanese singer Myriam Fares was chosen to be the brand ambassador for an important label of coloured contact lenses in the Middle East this year.
Myriam is the first Arab artist to be chosen by the company.
Before that, Myriam was in Cairo where she was chosen by a magazine as best singer of 2007. Her video Wahishni Eh was selected as the video of the year by the same publication.
Talking about Myriam's videos, famous director Yehia Saade, who prefers to be presented as a "story creator'', was asked by journalists to comment on Myriam's latest video clip, Moukana Wein, since she was criticised by the local press for its suggestive content.
Yehia, who directed the video, said that he did not agree with the idea proposed by the singer and her manager. Saade directed video clips for several stars such as Haifa Wehbe, Nancy Ajram and Nawal Zogby.
Lonely Hijazi
Amal Hijazi celebrates birthday alone
Lebanese singer Amal Hijazi broke up with her rich Arab fiancé on February 19. Why is the date important? Because it is the day before her birthday. Needless to say, she was really depressed on a day that should have been a celebration. She was alone and she chose to go on live television to do an interview.
Even if she was crying rivers of tears Amal said that she didn't miss anybody on that occasion. She stressed the fact that no matter what, she will continue on her way and that she will stay strong.
Talking about her latest love affair, she said that she is faithful to her partner "I'm very positive about people, never thinking badly of them… until they prove the contrary… I think that a lot of them were not that good to me,'' she said sadly.
fond memories
On her birthday, Amal probably received an SMS from her ex-fiancé but of course she had no messages from Charbel Doumit, her ex-manager and ex-boyfriend. Last year, on the same occasion, Doumit organised a big surprise party for her.
At that time, Amal was shooting a special TV programme with director Simon Asmar. At the end of the show Charbel said to the famous singer, "Let's go have diner the two of us alone''. But Charbel had prepared a big surprise, inviting all Amal friends and acquaintances… What a difference a year makes.
