RIYADH: As the profile of women continues to rise in the contemporary music industry in Saudi Arabia, and the wider Middle East, all-female rock-fusion band Seera is boldly pioneering a largely untapped psychedelic sound on the Kingdom’s local scene.
After a warm-up by DJ Haffs, the Saudi band delivered a captivating performance to an audience of more than 200 people at The Warehouse in Riyadh on Thursday night in their debut live show. The venue echoed to the unique sounds of the four-piece band: guitarist Haya, bassist Meesh, THING on drums, and Nora on lead vocals and keyboard. The audience was duly impressed.
“Throughout the whole performance, my phone was always in my pocket; I never took it out, and I never took any pictures or any videos,” Nadir Al-Fassam, lead guitarist of Saudi psychedelic punk band Sound of Ruby, told Arab News.
“I was just concentrating on the performance. The truth is that doesn’t happen a lot.”
Beyond their music, however, Seera’s greatest impact might lie in the influence they have on other Saudi women.
Meesh said: “We haven’t even launched yet and I’ve already had women come up to me and (say), ‘I’ve been picking up an instrument but I haven’t felt like I could really put myself out there until seeing you guys,’ or, ‘You guys inspired me.’”
The band hopes their live debut will encourage others to take to the stage.
“It’s still kind of a male-dominated field globally, and here, too… (as) an all-woman band, we really want to support women to be more out there and to take up space,” said Haya.
The story of the band began a year ago, when Haya met sisters Meesh and Nora through Instagram and they got together for a jam session.
“Within a minute, we had written a song, and when Nora also came and met up with us we were just going and going,” Haya told Arab News.
Nora added: “Me and Meesh started playing music a long time ago. Since we’re sisters, we’ve always felt there was a missing piece. We were looking for a band and people to connect with through our music. We were on the hunt.
“When Haya reached out to Meesh, it was the perfect opportunity to form a band, especially since our music tastes are very similar. We like uniqueness in music and we love diversity in sound.”
Drummer THING was the missing link, she said, and they met her at a music event later that summer.
Meesh said: “I’ve played with a lot of people before but when I played with the girls, I expressed myself freely in a way that I’m not used to. I felt myself progress … Playing together really helped us all develop ourselves as musicians, as people, as a band.”
The group’s sound, which combines their interests in jazz, funk, soul and Turkish psychedelic rock, is reminiscent of performers from the 1970s such as Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin, but they add their own spin by infusing it with Arabic and English influences.
“When I started writing lyrics, I used to always write in English but I wanted to get more in touch with my culture,” said Nora.
“So, I really looked into the writing process and I ended up loving it. Arabic Fus’ha (classical Arabic) is beautiful, and I wanted to incorporate that more into the music. That’s when we mixed both languages together.”
Some of their lyrics also feature Ammiya, or colloquial Arabic, in an effort to modernize the sound while remaining true to their roots and upbringing.
“We really wanted to represent an original sound,” said THING. “It was really important for us to focus on our culture, on local Arabic sounds mostly, and then mixing it together because we’re influenced by a lot of things.”
As they performed original tracks on Thursday night, including “Woman,” “Junoon Almal” (“Money Craze or Greed”) and “Khaleek Ba’eed” (“Stay Away”), the band really played to the crowd, complete with free-flowing moves and headbanging, often inviting the audience to clap along. “We’re about to take you guys to dreamland,” Nora told them between songs.
The crowd went wild when Seera concluded their set with the track “Slapping,” calling out for more.
“We were so overwhelmed by the audience and their energy and how they felt the music,” said Nora.
“I could see in their faces that they were connecting with it and that just meant the world to me. This doesn’t stop here and it’s just fueling our fire for the future.”
Live debut of all-female Saudi band Seera showcases the electrifying power of women
https://arab.news/zwxw7
Live debut of all-female Saudi band Seera showcases the electrifying power of women
- The 4-piece Saudi band delivered a captivating performance to a delighted audience of more than 200 people at The Warehouse in Riyadh on Thursday night
- Guitarist Haya said: ‘It’s still kind of a male-dominated field … (as) an all-woman band, we really want to support women to be more out there and to take up space’
Prince Mohammed bin Salman Award for Cultural Cooperation opens for nominations
- The awards will recognize individuals and academic or cultural institutions that have contributed to cultural collaborations between Saudi Arabia and China
- Main categories are: Research and Studies in Cultural Fields; Artistic and Creative Works; Translation Between Arabic and Chinese; and Cultural Personality of the Year
RIYADH: Nominations opened on Thursday for the inaugural Prince Mohammed bin Salman Award for Cultural Cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China. They will be accepted at the website www.pmsa.org.sa until the end of February.
The secretary-general of the awards, Abdul Mohsen Al-Aqili, invited academic and cultural institutions in both countries to suggest nominees in four main categories: Research and Studies in Cultural Fields; Artistic and Creative Works; Translation Between Arabic and Chinese; and Cultural Personality of the Year.
Other than the personality of the year category, which is open to individuals, the nominees can be cultural or academic institutions or individuals, and they can nominate themselves.
“The Award is governed by general conditions, the most important of which is that the nominee must be a Saudi or Chinese,” said Al-Aqili.
Nominated work must “achieve the main goal of the awards, which is to contribute to strengthening cultural communication in general, and between the Arab and Chinese cultures in particular.”
The awards are based on the values of cultural openness and communication between peoples, and they will be governed by the principles of objectivity, integrity, transparency and intellectual property rights, he added.
The scheme will place a particular focus on the youth of both countries, with the aim of investing in their technical and artistic skills to help enhance cultural communication, Al-Aqili said.
Rare sand cat spotted in Saudi Arabia’s Northern Borders region
- The sand cat is a small-sized nocturnal animal that only comes out after dark in search of food
- It became almost extinct due to poaching and natural habitat destruction
RIYADH: A rare species of an endangered cat was recently spotted in the east of Arar in the Northern Borders region.
The sand cat is a small-sized nocturnal animal that only comes out after dark in search of food.
The cat, which became almost extinct due to poaching and natural habitat destruction, is now reappearing in nature due to the spread of natural reserves and the establishment of ecosystems that preserve it and contribute to its reproduction.
According to the Saudi Press Agency, the cat stays in burrows during the day to avoid high temperatures, and to stay hydrated and satiated.
It lives in sandy and stony desert areas, away from people, in rugged terrain that abounds with plants.
Nasser Al-Majlad, president of the Aman Environmental Association in the Northern Borders region, said that the area was abundant with many wild animals of different categories, species and types, due to the different surrounding conditions, such as the diversity of the terrain; mountains, plateaus, plains, valleys and reefs, in addition to the spread of different kinds of annual and seasonal plants.
He said that the sand cat feeds on small rodents, lizards and snakes, hunts its prey at night when it has the ability to see fully in the dark, and can survive without water as it receives all hydration from its prey.
The female gives birth in burrows or among rocks, once and sometimes twice a year after a gestation period of between 59 to 68 days. It gives birth to a litter of three to four kittens, which are unable to see for ten days, but begin to be self-reliant in hunting prey after three or four months.
Al-Majlad said that the sand cat has a sandy to pale yellow-orange coat, with light-colored markings on the top of its body. Its front legs had two black rings and its tail feature two to five black rings with buff bands.
It has a white belly, a broad flattened head and large, black-tipped and triangular ears, and sharp hearing. The thick hair spread between its fingers and feet protects its paws from the heat of the earth in the summer, and provides the stability to walk on sand dunes.
Al-Majlad said that currently the sand cat only faced threat from hunting by humans. As for its natural enemies, it could protect itself well by quickly running away or hiding in burrows that it dug under perennial trees.
Saudi Arabia can achieve clean water entirely by renewable energy-powered desalination, executives say
- Kingdom already has several desalination plants powered by renewable energy
RIYADH: A nationwide supply of clean water produced entirely by renewable energy-powered desalination in Saudi Arabia is possible, according to top industry executives.
Mohammed Al-Hajjaj, CEO of Engie Saudi Arabia, spoke to Arab News about how advances in technology and affordability meant that fully renewable desalination is a possibility.
“In recent years, we have seen significant advances in energy storage, making it not only feasible and practical, but also increasingly affordable,” he said on the sidelines of the Solar & Storage Live KSA exhibition in Riyadh on Wednesday.
“We anticipate that in the coming years, technological advances will enable the integration of full desalination powered entirely by renewable energy sources, combined with energy storage solutions.”
Al-Hajjaj pointed out that several universities and research institutions in Saudi Arabia were developing technology to achieve fully renewable desalination in the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia already has several desalination plants that are powered by renewable energy — including the 90,000 m3/day Al-Khafji and the 600,000 m3/day Jazlah.
Several more are in development, including Engie’s 450,000 m3/day Yanbu 4 and 570,000 m3/day Jubail 3B.
Significant development is needed to increase the capacity of green desalination in the country, which produced an average of 13.2 million m3/day of desalinated water in 2023.
As well as building solar-power desalination plants, Saudi Arabia has big ambitions to decarbonize its entire energy grid and achieve a 50/50 mix of renewable and gas by 2030.
Francois-Xavier Boul, Engie’s managing director MENA (Middle East and North Africa), echoed Al-Hajjaj’s optimism over renewable desalination.
He said: “With the grid becoming greener and greener, you can see a day where that becomes possible.”
One factor that has historically incurred additional costs for renewable energy systems is large-scale battery storage.
Due to intermittency issues — when solar panels are not harvesting energy from sunlight overnight, or when wind levels fall causing turbines to stop spinning — battery storage systems are one way of achieving round-the-clock renewable energy.
Building large battery systems does add costs, but on a positive note for renewable energy utilities providers and governments looking to cut emissions, those costs are plummeting.
A 2023 report from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory predicted that battery prices would continue to fall through to at least 2050.
Developers from around the world gathered in Riyadh on Wednesday for the Solar & Storage Live KSA exhibition.
The event brought together global renewable companies intending to cultivate new opportunities in Saudi Arabia’s path to net zero.
With ambitious targets to increase renewable energy capacity, the Kingdom is a fertile ground for developers.
Some of the world’s largest solar projects are being built in the country, including the 1.5-GW Sudair, 2-GW Shuaibah 2, 2-GW Ar Rass 2, and 2-GW Haden.
Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announced in December 2023 a significant acceleration in the country’s renewable energy program.
The Kingdom will add 20 GW of renewable energy capacity every year, aiming to achieve a total of 130 GW by 2030.
The new target is a significant step up from the previous target of 58.7 GW. To achieve it, the country’s Ministry of Energy will be responsible for meeting 30 percent of the new capacity, while the Public Investment Fund is developing 70 percent with ACWA Power.
Smugglers of qat arrested in Jazan, Asir
JAZAN: Saudi Arabia’s Border Guard officers in the Al-Dair area of Jazan have arrested an Ethiopian national for allegedly smuggling 114 kg of qat into the country.
Meanwhile, authorities in the Al-Ardah area of Jazan foiled an alleged attempt to smuggle 280 kg of qat across the border.
Elsewhere, land patrols of the Border Guard in the Al-Rabuah area of the Asir region arrested four Yemeni nationals for allegedly smuggling 122 kg of qat.
All the suspects have been referred to the country’s prosecution authorities, according to recent Saudi Press Agency reports.
The government has urged citizens and residents to report drug smuggling or selling by calling 911 in Makkah, Riyadh and the Eastern Province, and 999 in other parts of the Kingdom.
Reports to the General Directorate of Narcotics Control can be submitted by calling the number 995 or emailing [email protected].
King Faisal hospital displays innovations and solutions
RIYADH: The Global Health Forum 2024 will be held in Riyadh from Oct. 21 to 23 with the participation of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre as a platinum sponsor.
The hospital’s pavilion will present its latest innovations and solutions in the health sector, as well as their effect on healthcare outcomes, the patients’ experience and operational efficiencies.
These innovations include robotic cardiac surgery, organ transplants, CAR-T cell production and pharmacogenetic analysis. The pavilion will also present the capacity command centre and its achievements in employing virtual reality technologies in medical education.
The hospital’s participation in the forum is part of its commitment to explore new trends, envision the future of healthcare and strengthen its position as an institution at the forefront of global healthcare innovation.
The hospital will introduce pavilion visitors to the achievements that made it a pioneer in the medical field, including performing the world’s first fully robotic heart transplant. The research center is famous for the local production of CAR-T cells.
This achievement is a qualitative addition to specialized healthcare in the Kingdom, reducing the financial burdens previously associated with manufacturing conditions elsewhere.
