The Music Affairs Centre under the Ministry of Culture and Sports has announced the 17 aspiring singers who comprise the finalists for the second edition of its exciting Nagham Competition aimed towards discovering unique singing talents of Qatar.
Launched in January, the contest, whose goal is to enhance cross-cultural convergence through music and encourage the best musicians in the country, was opened to talented citizens and residents in Qatar of any age who could sing in any language. It was divided into two categories namely singing in Arabic language and singing in other languages.
The finalists to advance to the second stage of the competition were chosen by the jury from among the video submissions of aspirants performing a song of their choice. The names of the finalists along with their photos were uploaded on the centre’s official social media accounts on Saturday.
In the Arabic singing category the finalists are Muhammad Habib from Mauritania, Sibal Abu Murad from Lebanon, Rawan Aldous from Palestine, Mahmoud Hamdy from Egypt, Muhammad Al Omari from Yemen, and Yusra Kharroubi, Riad Issa, Maryam Al Turki and Dalila Dhefi from Tunisia. The finalists in other languages category are Abubakar Mohamed from Somalia, Ali Shawkat from Pakistan, Aarya Prasad and Palavi Aditya from India, and Brian Joseph, Anna Vinna, Christian Mae, and Rosadelo Villanueva from the Philippines.
These finalists will record a music video of their performance not exceeding four minutes in the Music Affairs Center production studio which will be uploaded on the Centre’s YouTube channel for online voting which will run from March 1 to April 1.
Two winners from each category will take the first place that will be decided by jury and voting (number of likes that each competitor’s video will get at the Centre’s YouTube channel during the voting phase). The second place winner will be decided by the jury for each category.
The winners will be invited to the final event on April 5 where each will perform their own complete song live onstage.
The contest follows the huge success the inaugural edition enjoyed last year which saw the wealth of talent Qatar possesses in the field of music when a large number of aspiring musicians from various nationalities took part in the competition despite limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Conducted in several phases, the exciting competition, which was divided into two categories namely singers and instrumentalists, took place virtually between June and September.
Under the Department of Culture and Arts at the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Music Affairs Centre continues to play an active role in supporting music activities in Qatar, developing talents and spreading the culture of music to citizens and residents.
The Centre has been organising events for the community such as music festivals which focus on reflecting the importance of cultural diversity of the communities residing in Qatar and reflect the ministry’s vision of stressing the importance of opening up to other cultures.
