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Hams Fekri Topped Winner of First Season of Saudi Idol

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Hams Fekri, a 29-year-old Saudi wedding ceremony singer from Jeddah, has been topped the winner of the primary season of “Saudi Idol” throughout a transferring dwell finale from The Boulevard Riyadh Metropolis leisure complicated.

The golden-throated Fekri, whose mom had achieved success as a pop singer through the Nineteen Eighties, however subsequently pale into obscurity, hugged her personal younger daughter on stage. 

She was exultant after battling it out in entrance of a dwell studio viewers plus the panel of judges for 13 weeks and rising victorious out of three finalists to win most viewers votes for the night time.

Along with being named the very first “Saudi Idol,” Fekri additionally gained a recording contract with MBC Group’s Platinum Data label which includes the discharge of a full studio album within the coming months.

Following her win, Fekri expressed her gratitude to the viewers who voted for her, saying: “Everybody’s love and assist throughout this journey has made me a special particular person, and I hope to dwell as much as their expectations. I’m going to proceed to work more durable and more durable!”

She additionally paid tribute to Saudi Arabia, thanking the dominion, which is present process a serious cultural shift, for serving to to realize her dream.

Courtesy MBC

The primary Saudi Arabian version of Fremantle’s international Idol franchise was produced by main Center East broadcaster MBC in tandem with Saudi Arabia’s Normal Leisure Authority.

Previous to the present’s finale, Selection spoke to Samar Akrouk, MBC Group’s director of manufacturing, concerning the challenges and thrills of pioneering the Idol format in Saudi Arabia as the dominion morphs right into a regional leisure hub and restrictions beforehand imposed by conservative clerics ease.

MBC produces plenty of Arab expertise exhibits. Do you take into account “Saudi Idol” significantly important when it comes to breaking cultural limitations? 

Such as you stated, we’ve had large success with “Arab Idol,” which is a pan-Arab model of the format. And earlier than doing “Saudi Idol,” the primary localized model we did was “Iraq Idol.”

That stated, MBC has been a pacesetter, or an enormous contributor, to this [cultural] change that you just’re seeing in Saudi Arabia, and has in all probability been on the forefront of it. I imply, we’ve been producing content material – I’d say progressive, tolerant, eye-opening content material – for years. And, by the best way, [before the country opened up] we might not have been producing this kind of content material in Saudi Arabia, however we had been producing it for the Saudi viewers. So the urge for food is there. Certainly, you can’t deny that there are many optimistic modifications which can be taking place in Saudi Arabia, and significantly on the planet of leisure. However I additionally assume that we’ve all the time been a part of this pattern. We’ve all the time been serving to to advertise and propel this pattern.

Are you able to speak to me concerning the “Saudi Idol” auditions course of?

I take into account Saudi Arabia to be extra like a continent, not a rustic. As a result of it’s large. So we went south, east and west to all the foremost cities. What we do is we ship the behind-the-scenes group throughout all of the areas. We acquire the tales — I name them “The Good, the Unhealthy and the Ugly.” These are the tales that we predict could make good tv content material. After which we carry them in and we do the auditions, which is what you see with the jury. So we coated a variety of cities. We had large turnouts from all these completely different cities and from – how can I say this – the completely different perception methods which can be in Saudi Arabia. We attracted all of them. They got here and so they made it on the present. 

The “Saudi Idol” jury options Saudi singer Aseel Abu Bakr, Emirati singer and actress Ahlam, Syrian singer Asala and Iraqi singer and composer Majed Al Mohandis. Not all of them are Saudis. How had been they chosen?

To start with, the jury needs to be picked based mostly on characters. You have to have sturdy characters and personalities on these exhibits. So it all the time begins from there. Even in our different exhibits, it doesn’t begin with nationalities. It begins with who we predict has the character and the character to hold these packages. So how did we select the jury? Nicely, they aren’t all Saudis. However all 4 of them have an enormous fan base in Saudi Arabia, and still have produced Saudi music. So, even when not by passport or by nationality, they’re Saudis. They’ve an enormous fan base there, and so they have mastered the artwork of Saudi music.

The jury can also be gender-balanced (two girls, two males) and the ladies aren’t carrying veils.

In fact, you additionally need to just be sure you have feminine illustration and male illustration. I need to level out that one of many jury members, Ahlam, truly began with us within the “Arab Idol” franchise. So it made sense to point out the expansion and the continuity of this format, and the way we took her from “Arab Idol,” and put her in “Saudi Idol.” That created a really good hyperlink or an extension, let’s say, of the model.

What concerning the veil? I do know Saudi shouldn’t be Iran. However I’ve been to Saudi lately and most ladies there have been veiled.

Sporting a veil is a matter of selection in Saudi Arabia, and within the Arab world usually. I do know that possibly folks don’t perceive that. However it’s truly a selection, and it’s a cultural factor. So you possibly can put on it, or you can’t put on it. And after we did our casting, I’d say about 30% of the ladies got here veiled. 

Courtesy MBC

Are you able to give me an thought of the kinds of music on “Saudi Idol”?

Because it’s “Saudi Idol” and the contestants are Saudi, clearly the vast majority of the music is Saudi music which has a specific fashion to it. It’s heavy on percussion. Plenty of the songs on the present are Saudi. I’d say the break up is about 70/30 (70% Saudi, and 30% Arabic from elsewhere). So we take in style Saudi songs from the Saudi legends, whether or not they be Mohammed Abdu or Abadi Al-Johar, or Rabeh Saqer, and we create fashionable variations of their songs, and these younger skills are singing them. However the contestants usually are not simply singing Saudi songs, or re-engineered Saudi songs. They’re additionally singing different very talked-about songs from the area — Egyptian songs, Lebanese songs, however all the time re-engineered for his or her voice and their vocal vary 

Was there any Arab rap music on the present?

We don’t have a rapper on this season. However that doesn’t imply this isn’t one thing that we might need to embody subsequent time round. Generally, these exhibits are extra for a mass viewers. So rapping could also be a bit bit extra area of interest. Hip hop is big in Saudi Arabia. However whereas I’d love to incorporate them in this type of present, they may be deprived as a result of the opposite kinds of songs might have extra of a mass enchantment. However personally I believe that’s the subsequent factor that I’m speaking to MBC about: producing a present for rappers, about hip hop. It’s an enormous underground scene. Actually it’s not even underground anymore. It’s an enormous scene that pulls a lot of the Arab youth.

How have the scores been?

It’s doing very effectively. “Saudi Idol” has introduced eyeballs again to TV. It’s our primary non-football [soccer] present, I’ll put it to you that method. As a result of it was additionally competing with the World Cup, after which the resumption of the soccer [soccer] league. So it’s doing exceptionally effectively. It’s been our primary program in its time slot proper now, throughout the MENA area. Commercially, the present has to do effectively in Saudi Arabia, clearly, and it does. In order that’s our predominant market. However we’ve doing it with a imaginative and prescient that it must journey. And it actually has.

How vital do you assume “Saudi Idol” is in establishing Saudi Arabia as a regional leisure entity?

Saudi Arabia is turning into a regional hub. So producing in Saudi and attracting native expertise is nice, in and of itself. However that’s not the place we need to cease. We wish to have the ability to take the Saudi tradition, the Saudi ecosystem usually, and be sure that it transcends boundaries. When you’ve got a jury on “Saudi Idol” that’s as eclectic as ours, which can be Saudis and non-Saudis, that’s precisely what you’re doing. You are attempting to take the Saudi track, the Saudi expertise, and the Saudi tradition, and hope that it transcends these boundaries.

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.

Samar Akrouk
Courtesy MBC

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97-Yr-Previous Dick Van Dyke Crashed His Automotive Into A Gate And Suffered Minor Accidents

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March 22, 2023 / Posted by: Mieka

Rattling, dolphins! You had one job to do! TMZ experiences that Dick Van Dyke, one of many world’s final remaining INTERNATIONAL TREASURES, folded his lanky 97-year-old ass into his 2018 Lexus LS 500 and crashed right into a gate. Thank goodness that “he managed to keep away from critical harm” and no because of his pod of guardian dolphins who pushed him to shore in 2010 when he fell asleep whereas browsing and drifted off to sea. No! Don’t scream “ACKACKACKACKACK” at me, you rubbery little freaks, I do know he was on land, however in the event you save Dick Van Dyke as soon as, you’ve agreed to save lots of him for all times. I hope you all get changed into tuna fish for what you’ve accomplished.

Based on TMZ, the crash occurred in Malibu. Which is shut sufficient to the ocean that they ought to have been capable of get to him on time as he was careening in the direction of them within the rain.

Legislation enforcement sources inform TMZ … police responded to a name of a single-car accident final Wednesday morning, and when deputies arrived they discovered Dick behind the wheel of a 2018 Lexus LS 500 which he’d crashed right into a gate.

Our sources say the 97-year-old movie and TV legend informed cops his automobile slid and he misplaced management earlier than slamming into the gate. The streets had been moist from the nonstop rain L.A.’s been getting.

As for Dick’s accidents … we’re informed he was bleeding from the nostril and mouth and might need suffered a concussion. Paramedics handled him on the scene, and he had little interest in going to a hospital.

This isn’t Dick’s first time having hassle behind the wheel. In 2013, Dick needed to be pulled out of his burning Jaguar after CHP obtained experiences of a automobile on hearth on the 101 freeway in Calabasas. Based on The LA Times, Dick didn’t seem to even realize it was on hearth, I assume he was simply sitting in all of it “chim chim cher-ee-oo!” And once more, the place had been the dolphins? Even when they couldn’t make all of it the best way onto the freeway, they may have a minimum of splashed somewhat water his method. TMZ provides:

Our sources say medicine and alcohol had been NOT concerned … although cops have submitted paperwork to the DMV requesting a driving retest for Dick, with one of many components being his age.

We’re informed somebody picked him up, so he didn’t need to drive dwelling from the scene.

Dick is married, so perhaps it was his spouse, Arlene Silver, who’s 46 years his junior. Oh, cease your “ACKACKACKACKing… Oh wait, what’s that now? Uh huh? Uh huh? Uh huh? OK, nicely you do make an excellent level. Guys, the dolphins have simply knowledgeable me that in response to their code of hi-jinks and the excessive seas, “any man who shall wed whereas in our safety, shall forfeit stated protections and they’re transferred to the partner.” Dick and Arlene married in 2013, so the dolphins are absolved. So it’s ACKACKACKACKED, so it shall be.

Pic: Instagram

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Jewel Says Her Mother, Who Was As soon as Her Supervisor, Embezzled Over $100 Million From Her

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In case your preliminary shock was additionally that Jewel ever earned $100 million to have the ability for somebody to embezzle it, I get it. However upon additional ponderance, she and her trompe l’oeil titties have given us so much. A lot of the inhabitants has in all probability yodeled alongside along with her to “Who Will Save (SAY-hee-AYVE) Your Soul,” and what number of different razor commercial bangers are you able to bear in mind apart from “Instinct?” None, that’s what number of. However as a substitute of sometimes utilizing the lyrics to “Fingers” to joke about not with the ability to grip one thing girthy or resting her face towards the cool, foggy automotive window whereas moodily mouthing “Silly Video games” like the remainder of us, Jewel’s mother allegedly performed some silly video games along with her four-time Grammy-winning daughter’s pile of cash when she was her supervisor.

In response to Page Six, Jewel was on the Verywell Thoughts Podcast with Amy Morin on Monday and talked about her former monster momager Lenedra Carroll having sticky fingers the entire time she was managing her, solely to be stopped when Jewel realized she was a number of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in debt.

“I didn’t actually notice what my mother was till I used to be 30-something. I awoke and realized she embezzled all of my cash, over $100 million…”

“Thirty-four years previous, notice I’m $3 million in debt, notice my mother stole it, notice every thing I assumed my mother was, isn’t what she was, very tough psychological factor to come back to phrases with.”

And that wasn’t even her mother’s first deplorable offense. Jewel later discovered that her abusive dad had custody of her when she was younger as a result of her mother simply didn’t really feel like momming.

“My mother and pop received divorced after I was 8, and we went to stay with my dad,” she recalled.

“No person advised me it’s as a result of my mother didn’t wish to be a mother. She left us, and so my dad took over elevating us. I didn’t know that on the time.”

“My dad was this risky alcoholic that hit me, very straightforward to establish ‘dangerous man.’ My mother appeared like the alternative,” she defined.

“She was calm, she was gentle, she by no means yelled, clearly by no means hit me. And I didn’t notice I used to be being abused in one other method on the time.”

Jewel says Lenedra additionally performed thoughts video games along with her, so when she did must mother or father her, she wouldn’t must cope with the antics of a rambunctious little one.

“Let’s say after I would present up on her doorstep, she would say, ‘Your thoughts is so highly effective. Our minds are solely faucet, we use like 10% of our mind energy. Our minds are so highly effective and I feel you, Jewel, are so highly effective that I feel you can sit right here and stare at this mild bulb and also you may be capable of get it to show off along with your thoughts.’”

It wasn’t till later that she found, “What it really was was my mother didn’t wish to keep there and be with me, and he or she babysat me by having me watch mild bulbs. So generally the looks of an hooked up determine isn’t what it appears.”

Listed here are some snippets from Jewel’s interview:

Jewel’s well-known origin story of being found whereas living in her car was bleak sufficient, nevertheless it’s unlucky to listen to she additionally lived by way of being swindled by her personal evil, avaricious mom. Not each artiste will get a doting momager who’ll sit by way of a number of of their intercourse tapes so everybody can win; so subsequent time you belt out “you had been meant for pee, and I used to be meant for poo” (alright, that one’s in all probability simply me), consider the tormented girl behind the ballad!

Pic: YouTube

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Ben Affleck And Jennifer Lopez Have Fallen Out Of Escrow For A Third Time

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March 22, 2023 / Posted by: Mieka

Please maintain some area in your coronary heart right now for Ben Affeck and Jennifer Lopez’ actual property brokers; it’s arduous out right here for a property pimp. TMZ studies that Ben and Jen have fallen out of escrow, for a 3rd time in a 12 months, on the $64 million Pacific Palisades mansion they determined to purchase simply couple of weeks in the past. Perhaps the current rains in southern California revealed cracks within the basis. Of the home! The home, folks! Ben and Jen are extra in love right now than they have been 13 days in the past once they signed the contracts. However for no matter motive, it’s again to scouring Criagslist or nonetheless they do it, as a result of their seek for a Excellent 10 continues.

Since Jen at all times appears to be looking out for brand new income streams, I might recommend linking up with Netflix to pitch a collection referred to as Edging Sundown. TMZ studies:

Sources with direct information inform TMZ that Bennifer has fallen out of escrow on the $64 million Pacific Palisades mansion they appeared to have their sights set on earlier this month — which was an absolute magnificence that may’ve definitely accommodated their wants.

It’s unclear why they’re bailing … however we’re listening to they’re completed with it, and are transferring on.

Now, when you’re holding depend — this really marks the third dwelling they’ve fallen out of escrow on prior to now 12 months. There was a $55 million Bel-Air property they have been set to purchase means again in April, however that sale fell via. They have been additionally set to purchase one other PP palace final month — which was price simply $34.5 mil — however they walked away from that property as properly.

Not losing any time, Jen was really pounding the pavement anew this previous weekend — cruising via Holmby Hills.

In keeping with The Nest, in California, “patrons have 17 days after signing the contract to name off a sale and get again the deposit,” so them saying “psyche” once more may not have value a factor. TMZ says the mansion they’re taking a look at now was the house of late designer Max Azria. It’s presently listed at $65 million, down from $75, which was down from the earlier itemizing worth of $85. In keeping with the home’s listing, it’s acquired six buildings on 2.8 acres totaling 30,000 sq ft with 17 bedrooms, 25 baths, and an “expansive motor courtroom for over 20 automobiles.” Jennifer’s love could not value a factor, however it’s so huge it wants its personal zip code.

In keeping with The Real Deal, they’ve been attempting to unload this property since 2015.

In 2005 Sheldon bought it to Max Azria, the founding father of vogue home BCBG, and his spouse Lubov Azria, a designer, for $14 million. In 2015, after spending $30 million on an overhaul, the couple listed the property for $85 million, the Wall Avenue Journal reported, then raised the ask to $88 million the next 12 months. The property has been on and off the market since then.

They are saying a sucker is born day-after-day, however most of them don’t have $65 to throw round. And Bennifer positive wasn’t born yesterday. Bennifer’s so outdated it may vote. Ben and Jen could also be fools for love, however I believe they’re not so silly that they’re feeding their furnace of fiery ardour with $100 payments. The Nest says one more reason an individual would possibly fall out of escrow is “a house not appraising at or above the promoting worth”  or “if the house falls out of escrow as a consequence of a contingency listed in your contract, you’ll obtain your deposit again.” I let you know what, if Jennifer shared their listing of contingencies ** sotto vocce** On The JLo, I’d smash that subscribe button so arduous I’d crack my very own basis. Worst case situation, they’ll at all times simply transfer to the seashore and roll round within the sand like within the good outdated days. They only have to hold their eyes peeled for snakes in tanks!

Pic: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages

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