The Music Affairs Center of the Ministry of Culture organized yesterday evening an event titled “Soccer Chants” at the Roman Theater in the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara), headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of the Ministry’s cultural activities commemorating the Arab Soccer Cup championship, which ends on Saturday. The organization of the event at Katara came after the success achieved last Monday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture, which embraced a large number of Arab audiences and visitors to Katara.
The artistic evening included songs by a number of Arab singers, especially by nationals of the countries that qualified for the semifinals, i.e. Algeria, Tunisia, Qatar and Egypt, as well as singers from a number of other Arab countries that participated in the tournament, especially Morocco, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
The event began, in the presence of a huge turnout, with songs from Algeria and Tunisia, the two soccer cup finalists, titled “Rayḥ win msāfr” and “1,2,3 Viva Algeria,” performed by Algerian singer Marva, and “’Eīd,” “Ahīm bi Tunis al Khaḍrā” and “Jāri Hamūdah” by Tunisian singer Yusra Mohamed.
The stage was subsequently shared by representatives of the two competing countries for the third and fourth places, namely Qatari Nasser Suhaim and Egyptian Ahmed Anani. Suhaim performed songs titled “Sīrū wa ‘Ainu Allah Tar’ākum,” “’Ayni Qatar” and “Yaum Milādī,” while Anani performed the following songs: “Yā Ḥabībatī yā Maṣr,” “Sawwaḥ” and “Sīratu al Ḥub.” They then performed as a duo the song “Allah Yā ‘Umrī Qatar.”
The event, which was moderated by Adel Abdullah, continued with the songs of Moroccan Amal Mohmed “Marsūl al Ḥub” and “Hā Ḥnā Gīnā.” Lebanese singer, Sibyl, performed “Biḥibik yā Lubnān” and “Nassim ‘alaynā al Hawāh.” Iraqi singer, Ali Hamim, performed “Fawq an-Nakhīl” and “Bayn al ‘Aṣr wal Maghreb,” while Syrian singer, Mohamed Barakat, sang “Yā Ḥilw yā Msalīnī,” “Ya Māl Shām” and “Qadak al Mayyās.”
The Music Affairs Center also presented, as part of the cultural events accompanying the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2021, some songs in the open Corniche, where soccer fans were gathering, with a view to ensuring the presence of the national spirit among the fans from the various participating Arab countries. There was also a number of musicians in the tournament stadiums, and musical tracks presented by the Music Affairs Center were disseminated at the various Qatar Rail stations.