Al-Shaima Ahmed Farouk
Published on: Sunday, March 3, 2024 – 11:47 AM | Last updated: Sunday, March 3, 2024 – 11:48 AM
Social media pages circulated news about the Lebanese singer Fairouz’s refusal to invite the Saudi Entertainment Authority to perform at a concert in the Kingdom.
The news spread strongly on platforms such as Facebook and X, and a video clip of a Lebanese media personality speaking about the issue was circulated on the TikTok platform.
Al-Shorouk followed the threads of the story to reveal the truth of the published news.
The singer Fairouz’s refusal to sing in the Kingdom has become a trend, although the source of the information has not been published yet, but hundreds of public and private pages share the news and comment on it, and between welcoming her refusal and welcoming her position and other criticisms, it was not mentioned when this rejection occurred and the news was not shared from a single news platform. To ensure the reliability of the story.
The matter began to be circulated on February 25, 2024, through a video clip of journalist Pierre Abi Saab, speaking on his program “In All Conditions” on Al-Mayadeen Channel. The clip spread on the “Facebook” platform and the number of views on one of the Lebanese pages reached 12 thousand views.
The video clip stated that the Arab media and newspapers ignored the news of Fairouz’s refusal to go to Saudi Arabia to sing at the invitation of Counselor Turki Al Sheikh, and that there was a French magazine that wrote about the subject, but her name was not mentioned.
Then Abi Saab expressed his support for Fairouz’s decision, and said: “The woman of heritage, memory, and identity… politely apologized for not accepting an attractive offer to sing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the time and in the form she chooses, and told them that if she wanted to sing, she would sing in Lebanon.”
By searching behind this video, it was confirmed that it dates back to March 2, 2023, that is, almost a year ago, according to the official platform of Al-Mayadeen Channel, and a clip from the episode, which was talked about by the journalist Abi Saab, was republished and published on “Tik Tok” and then re-shared on the platform.” Facebook” with a more recent date of February 25, 2024.
Fayrouz’s invitation to Saudi Arabia also goes back to the beginning of 2023, when news circulated about calls and insistence from the Entertainment Authority to hold a special concert for Mrs. Fayrouz, but according to the Lebanese Al-Jaras magazine, apologies were coming every time the request was repeated.
Newspapers in various places were interested in covering the news of Fairouz’s refusal to travel to Saudi Arabia and perform a concert there. Even the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published under the title “Why did the most famous singer in the Arab world, Fairouz, say no to Mohammed bin Salman?” The Israeli article added a political tone to the matter, as it attributed Fairouz’s refusal to the fact that she “does not want to participate in building the liberal cultural bubble that Bin Salman wants to build.”