[ad_1]
Singer Ahmed Al Maimani represents the perfect fusion of the Arab and Indian worlds
read more…
A young Saudi boy was part of the excited audience at the Al-Janadriya Cultural Festival in Riyadh in 2018. India had a strong presence at the festival that year, with people of various nationalities coming together to showcase their culture, art and music. He knew that some Bollywood songs would be played and showcased on the festival stage. His family was also there.
Ahmed loved Bollywood from an early age. Since there were no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia at the time, he consumed a large amount of Hindi films using his VHS cassettes. Following his love for Hindi films, he naturally fell in love with their songs as well. “He may not be able to speak the language well, but he can definitely sing songs in the language,” he says. Ahmed, a young man from Al Khobar, started singing along, and once he started working, he started singing at office parties.
At the Al Janadriya Festival, Ahmed spotted his best friend on stage, who was managing the event. He had worked at the Indian embassy, and Mr. Ahmed tried to get his attention in the crowd as they stood to the side of the stage. “Finally I picked up a small rock and threw it at him, and he looked annoyed wondering who hit him. He looked at me and smiled. The friend introduced him to the music team, and after a sound check, Ahmed was on stage singing to an audience of 3,000 people. .
Ahmed used to sing at office parties, but this was his first major public performance. “sang Anhon Mai Teri from Om Shanti Omfollowed by Chaand Sifarishfrom fanaa And the crowd cheered and cheered me on. I couldn’t believe it myself, but I could see that they were having fun because I was having fun,” says Ahmed.
After the performance, Mr. Ahmed was flooded with media and event companies to cooperate. “Hindi and Urdu are the languages spoken by my colleagues and company staff, so they helped me master these languages perfectly,” he says.
When asked what his favorite movie is, he says: “My first film was an Amitabh Bachchan film.” Don I watched it several times with my brother, who is also a movie buff. Both my parents loved these movies because they were shown on Bahraini TV and we lived in Khobar,” he says. Every Friday at 8:30 pm, Hindi movies were broadcast with Arabic subtitles. “We are all familiar with names like Dharmendra, Mithun Chakraborty, Amitabh Bachchan and of course Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan,” he says, adding that Boney Kapoor’s name mr india was his favorite movie as a child.
Like many Arabs of his generation, Ahmed visited Mumbai as a child and visited the homes of movie stars. “I have met Salman Khan and his parents and Arbaaz Khan. I went to a boogie-woogie show with Govinda and also met Sanjay Dutt.”
After Al-Janadriyah’s show, the embassy kept him in mind and invited him to future events. The only condition was that it had to be sung in Tamil. ‘In his two months he learned three lines and went on stage and he sang along with KS Chitra Madam. A Saudi man who sang a Tamil song in a Malayalam film became a hot topic,” he laughs.
Soon, Ahmed was called to Dubai for a show with rising stars Sitara and Akbar from Kerala and these events took over his life. “I participated in the Riyadh season and a month ago I attended another event with 5,000 people.” But his wife likes actor Sridevi’s songs. “She loves songs like Jeetendra Sridevi. Tataya Tataya Ho and sing My Teri Chandnito me,” he added.
Ahmed has a lot of followers on Instagram and all his fans prefer that he sings in Hindi instead of Arabic. “But a lot of Arabic songs are remade in Hindi, so I want to blend both,” he says.
[ad_2]
Source link