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 But for six hours on Monday night, stretching into the wee
hours of Tuesday morning, some 8,000 men sang along to epic love
songs in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah as the kingdom held its
first large-scale concert in nearly seven years.
It was a grand homecoming for Saudi superstar Mohammed Abdo,
popularly known as the "Artist of the Arabs," who has performed
to packed houses abroad for over a decade - often mostly Saudis
- but could not appear on stage at home.
Abdo was backed by a 60-man Egyptian orchestra and appeared with
two other popular singers: Rabeh Sager, a Saudi, and Majid Al-Muhandis,
an Iraqi who also holds Saudi citizenship.
Still, not all barriers had fallen. Security checkpoints around
the venue blocked entry to the area for anyone without a ticket
and women were barred from attending entirely.
The concert came only two days after a jazz performance sold out
the 3,300-seat King Fahd Cultural Centre in the more puritanical
capital Riyadh, which has not held public concerts in some 25
years.
DOUBLING SPENDING ON ENTERTAINMENT
The two events were bold steps forward for government plans to
promote the entertainment and leisure sector, part of an
economic and social reform drive aimed at creating jobs and
weaning the country off its dependence on oil.
"It's an indescribable feeling," Muhandis, one of two other
singers to perform, said after the show. "We were longing for
such concerts in our beloved kingdom. The audience was longing
for us and we were longing for them."
The Jeddah concert was staged by Rotana, a company owned mostly
by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
The kingdom's new General Entertainment Authority (GEA) has
staged some 70 events since it was created last year, but mostly
in smaller and protected semi-public spaces while officials are
on the lookout for disapproval from religious conservatives.
Abdo was slated to perform in Riyadh in September, but the
concert was canceled at the last minute without explanation.
Amr al-Madani, the newly appointed GEA chief executive, declined
to say whether a Riyadh concert was still in the works, but said
the authority aims to double household spending on entertainment
to 6 percent by 2030 and is committed to "[creating] experiences
that Saudi families can enjoy together."
Abdo first performed in the kingdom after a decade-long hiatus
at the Souq Okaz festival in Taiz, near Mecca, in August.
RICH IN CULTURE
Although the Wahhabi clergy has been close to the Al Saud
dynasty since the mid-18th century, offering it Islamic
legitimacy in return for control over parts of the state, music
in the kingdom was not always such a taboo.
Summer festivals in Jeddah and other Saudi cities used to
feature concerts. Musical instruments have been sold for decades
at the popular al-Halla market in downtown Riyadh.
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"Historically, Saudi society was rich in culture. There were many
musical traditions, with different variations and subcultures," said
Abdulsalam al-Wayel, a professor of sociology at King Saud
University.
"People from throughout the Islamic world brought their traditions
together in Mecca, somewhat like with jazz. This was part of
people’s identity for centuries."
But as conservatives gained power in the 1990s, the clerical
establishment emboldened the kingdom's Committee for the Promotion
of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) to crack down on
performances and other activities they saw as immoral.
The CPVPV's religious police chased after young men for playing
music in their cars too loudly. Videos - regularly mocked by other
Saudis - circulated online showing zealous men smashing musical
instruments to pieces.
To this day, music is absent in malls and all but the poshest
restaurants. The only public musical education is in military
academies, to train bands for official marches.
MUSIC AND ISLAM
Religious scholars, who control much of the kingdom's legal system,
remain divided on the question of whether music is permissible under
Islam, although some inside the clerical establishment have started
to question the evidence against it.
The state has tried for the past decade to foster a more moderate
reading of Wahhabi teachings. It stepped up the pace this year as
economic pressure to open up the country mounted.
Authorities clipped the powers of the religious police earlier this
year, barring them from making arrests, and forged ahead with the
Abdo concert despite a warning by the country's grand mufti that
"there is nothing good in song parties."
Arts fans say social media campaigns against entertainment, which
once pressured wary officials into cancelling events, are now
dwarfed by the messages of support from fans.
Sultan al-Bazie, who runs the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and
Arts (SASCA), called these campaigns "free advertising," after a
hashtag opposing music lessons offered by his organisation last year
resulted in a spike in registrations.
"Saudis have always been the biggest consumers of music in the Arab
world," he said. "Everybody is happy to have these kinds of
performances back – and I say back, because it used to be there."
(Corrects date for doubling spending to 2030 from 2020, in paragraph
12)
(Reporting by Katie Paul; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Tom Heneghan)
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