Iraqi-Canadian singer Ali Gatie gears up to perform at Wireless Festival Middle East

Iraqi-Canadian singer Ali Gatie gears up to perform at Wireless Festival Middle East
The Iraqi-Canadian singer was born in Yemen and raised in Abu Dhabi. (Supplied)
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Updated 09 March 2023
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Iraqi-Canadian singer Ali Gatie gears up to perform at Wireless Festival Middle East

Iraqi-Canadian singer Ali Gatie gears up to perform at Wireless Festival Middle East

DUBAI: Ali Gatie is in reflective mood, and it’s easy to see why. The Iraqi-Canadian singer, born in Yemen and raised in Abu Dhabi before emigrating to Toronto, Canada, is about to come full circle, performing as a marquee name at the first Iraqi-Canadian singer Ali Gatie gears up to perform at Wireless Festival Middle East, 20 years after he and his family last set foot in the UAE’s capital city.  

“I keep thinking back to the kid I was when I lived here. The kid who would sing along with Arabic songs on the radio; who loved to sing but never dreamed he would become a singer,” Gatie tells Arab News. 

“You forget so much about how you grew up, but I’ve never forgotten Abu Dhabi. I’ve never forgotten where I came from,” he continues. “I’ve been spending all week trying to figure out how this makes me feel, but I don’t know how to process it other than looking at my younger self and just telling myself how proud I am of me, you know? It’s crazy.”  




Ali Gatie on stage at Coachella in April 2022. (Getty Images)

There’s plenty to be proud of. The Ali Gatie of 2023 is not just a singer on a huge festival line-up, he’s a viral phenomenon; his 2019 breakout song “It’s You” has been streamed well over a billion times, not to mention its continued popularity on TikTok. With nearly 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Gatie has followed that first big splash with hit after hit, honing an R&B pop sound full of soulful yearning and heartache that has made him Gen Z’s go-to crooner.  

There was a time, though, when Gatie had to hide his own desire to express so much emotion in song.  

“I remember when Ed Sheeran’s song ‘The A Team’ first started to blow up, I thought it was so cool,” he says. “But my friends were a bunch of immigrants who thought it wasn’t cool at all. They liked T.I., 50 cent and Lil Wayne. In Toronto, it was all hip-hop and rap. Ed Sheeran became my little secret. I listened on the low, not telling my friends that I was doing a deep dive on this style of music that really blew me away.” 

While his nights may have been filled with Ed Sheeran, his days were still full of hip-hop, a developing skill much more acceptable to his social circle.  

“When I was 17, I would freestyle at school, while people would play beats and throw me words. It was a good way to make friends, honestly — by rapping, I found I could really impress people, and people wanted to join in with me,” says Gatie. 

Gatie would sit in his friends’ cars as they searched for beats online, recording voice notes on his phone as he freestyled over them. 




Gatie (L) performing 'Butterflies' with Max for 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' in August 2021. (Getty Images)

“Eventually, a friend of mine said I should go to the studio and try this, saying he knew a place we could pay only $50 per hour. I booked two hours with all the money I’d saved up from working at McDonald’s, and that first session was so fun,” he says. “It became like an addiction — I’d make money just to go to the studio and make songs. I released my first song — I ended up deleting it later, but even the little attention it got made me say, ‘This is cool. People are listening. I should keep going.’” 

Between 2016 and 2017, Gatie released around 15 rap tracks, without paying much attention to developing his own sound. But when he started university, he realized that he was now headed in a completely different direction, one in which music could be only a hobby. If this was something he was to truly pursue, he would have to do so with more intention. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Ali (@aligatie)

“I started paying more attention to what I was doing, and I realized I had to pursue the sound I’d always been hesitant to pursue,” he says. “I had to transition from trying to be a rapper, which was cool in Toronto, to becoming a singer, because I knew I would actually be better at that. By the end of 2017, I’d made the call. I knew deep down I’d always wanted to be a singer, and I never really wanted to be a rapper. I stopped focusing on what sound I thought would fit in with my group or in my city, and instead focusing on what I wanted to do. I thought, ‘How do I create my own sound?’ And by the beginning of 2018, I released the first track with that sound — ‘Can’t Lie.’”  

Soon, Gatie wasn’t just focused on his sound, but on his message. In May of that year, Gatie wrote a song called “Losing You,” — and for the first time he started to think deeply about the lyrics he was writing. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Ali (@aligatie)

“I was, like, ‘Let me write something meaningful, take it from my own experiences.’ But it started developing more into a story I was telling — something outside myself. And even though it didn’t go viral, people started asking me about it, telling me they’d connected to it. I realized I’d written a story — and then I wondered if I could beat it. I started writing better stories — getting more sophisticated — inspired by movies I’d seen or something friends had gone through, or writing a response to another song I’d connected with. Sometimes, I didn’t know where it would come from — some would say it came from god,” says Gatie. 

At home, his parents saw all this as no more than a hobby — that he was deluding himself to think it could be anything more. When he finally told them he planned to drop out of university and pursue it full-time, Gatie says, his father told him bluntly he would never succeed, and would likely end up homeless, as he wouldn’t be allowed back home.  

Undeterred, Gatie pressed on, and quickly proved he had what it took. Within months, his songs started picking up more and more steam, and soon he was releasing one platinum record after another.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Ali (@aligatie)

Five years later, as the 25-year-old singer heads back to Abu Dhabi, he’s finally reaching the heights he once dreamed of — heights that, because of his background, he was told would never be possible. 

“I used to tell my parents, ‘I can do this.’ And they’d say, ‘How many other Muslim Arab kids are doing this and succeeding?’ I was, like, ‘No one.’ They said, ‘Well, why do you think you could?’ 

“The best part of playing this festival in Abu Dhabi is the fact there’s going to be a kid in that crowd that wants to make music and can use me as an example to his parents. They can go home that night and say, ‘This kid started from nothing. He’s Arab just like me, or he’s an immigrant just like me. And he just played a huge festival with A-list celebrities,’” Gatie says. “I hope there’s one kid that realizes that this could be them next year.” 


Coffee, an integral part of Saudi culture, hospitality 

Coffee, an integral part of Saudi culture, hospitality 
Updated 28 September 2023
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Coffee, an integral part of Saudi culture, hospitality 

Coffee, an integral part of Saudi culture, hospitality 
  • Ministry of Culture’s Saudi Coffee Festival is open until Oct. 1
  • Gathering for an afternoon drink has deep value as it brings people together

RIYADH: Coffee is deeply rooted in Saudi culture, with families in most regions savoring the hot beverage late afternoon or early morning every day, whether at home or at the workplace.  

Almost all commercial and residential neighborhoods have cozy local coffee outlets nestled between shops. 

To introduce Saudi coffee to visitors and highlight its role as part of Saudi heritage, the Ministry of Culture is organizing the Saudi Coffee Festival for 2023 in the eastern part of King Abdullah Financial District from Thursday until Oct. 1

Targeting all age groups, the festival will offer visitors the opportunity to learn more about the history of Saudi coffee, as well as its cultivation methods, preparation and presentation.

Saudi coffee is made by roasting coffee beans until they are golden brown. The coffee is then boiled and served as a dark, unfiltered drink. Spices such as saffron, cardamom and cloves are also added to the boiled coffee for flavor and richness. Dates or desserts are served alongside Saudi coffee to balance the bitter taste of the drink. 

Saudi national Nourah Al-Harbi, who is originally from Madinah but has lived mostly in Riyadh, said: “When the sun sets, we bring our coffee and dates.” 

Sharing an anecdote from her childhood, Al-Harbi said: “I remember one of my uncles owned a farm in Madinah at the time, when I was a child …  His neighbors used to gather at his farm every evening after sunset prayer for coffee.”

Despite the popularity of the beverage, some of the Kingdom’s regions prefer other drinks during their afternoon hours, such as tea.

Hashid Adeel Mohammed, who works at a local company that specializes in warm beverages like coffee and tea, said: “Some people prefer black tea, while others like green tea, which they also have specific ways of preparing.”

Another business entrepreneur, Anas Al-Balouchi, who works as a general manager at a coffee and tea company, spoke to Arab News about some of the norms when it comes to afternoon hot drinks for people in Madinah, where he is from.

“In Madinah, tea time starts from late afternoon until sunset. But coffee is consumed from sunset to early in the evening,” he said.

“Black coffee is served in the morning.”

In a family-oriented culture, gathering for an afternoon drink has deep value as it brings people together, whether relatives sharing a house or neighbors living in the same community.


Saudi Netflix drama-comedy ‘Crashing Eid’ tackles romantic taboos with heart

Saudi Netflix drama-comedy ‘Crashing Eid’ tackles romantic taboos with heart
Updated 28 September 2023
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Saudi Netflix drama-comedy ‘Crashing Eid’ tackles romantic taboos with heart

Saudi Netflix drama-comedy ‘Crashing Eid’ tackles romantic taboos with heart

DUBAI: Following hot on the heels of Netflix’s first Saudi original comedy series “Tahir’s House,” the global streamer has just announced another Jeddah-set original series that is tailor-made to get the Kingdom talking.

Created by Saudi filmmaker Nora Aboushousha (“Lucky You Are Mine”), “Crashing Eid” is family drama-comedy that tackles societal romantic taboos with both an irreverent spirit and a warm heart, set to debut worldwide on Oct. 19.

The show follows Razan (Summer Shesha), a Saudi woman living in the UK with her teenage daughter who plans to marry a British-Pakistani man under the assumption that her family will approve the pairing without question. When she returns home during Ramadan, with her fiancé following soon after as an uninvited guest, she soon finds that breaking with tradition may be harder than she had originally thought — to both hilarious and dramatic results.

Aboushousha, herself from Jeddah, is a rising star in the Kingdom, with her one-location lockdown crime series “Rahin Altaqiq” and drama comedy about rebellious young Saudi woman “Confessions” both becoming viral hits over the last few years. She is also no stranger to pushing boundaries, with her short “Lucky You Are Mine” winning a production grant by the Saudi Film Commission before debuting at the 2022 Red Sea International Film Festival in her hometown to strong acclaim.

“We started off with a concept of someone who is different from their family, and that grew into this story of a single mother who returns from abroad. We started wondering, what will inspire the clash with the rest of the family? And immediately we realized, ‘oh, she should come back ready to be married to someone from outside the culture!’ Everything fell into place from there,” Aboushousha told Arab News.

For Shesha, who steps into her first major lead role as Razan, the project inspired her not only because of the ways that the conceit allows each member of the family to flourish as they grapple with the events it sets into motion, but because the themes are so easy to relate to for so many people across the world.

“First of all, this show is awesome. I really think it is. That drew me to it to begin with. But it also mattered to me that this is on Netflix worldwide. This is a show with global themes of family, conflict and love. I really wanted a show that both felt specific and universal and this show has really captures that,” Shesha told Arab News.


Review: ‘Fingernails’ – Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed star in Apple TV+’s anti-climactic sci-fi romance 

Review: ‘Fingernails’ – Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed star in Apple TV+’s anti-climactic sci-fi romance 
Updated 28 September 2023
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Review: ‘Fingernails’ – Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed star in Apple TV+’s anti-climactic sci-fi romance 

Review: ‘Fingernails’ – Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed star in Apple TV+’s anti-climactic sci-fi romance 

TORONTO: What if there was a test that could determine for certain that you and your partner are in love? Set in a near-distant future, Greek director’s Christos Nikou’s English debut “Fingernails” toys with that idea but the end result falls flat.

The sci-fi sees Anna (Jessie Buckley) on a job hunt after the school she worked for closes down. She lands a position at the love institute run by Duncan (Luke Wilson). This is an establishment that dedicates all its efforts to testing couples on whether they are truly in love with each other. 

Anna and her partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) received a positive test early into their relationship and have settled into a predictable routine at home that no longer excites Anna. Enter, Amir (Oscar-winner Riz Ahmed), Anna’s charming co-worker who helps her find her feet as they start running tests with clients and ultimately collect their fingernails for the final result. As weeks go on and despite Anna’s 100% test with her partner, Amir and Anna fall for each other which contradicts their entire career.

Buckley and Ahmed have instant chemistry as coworkers who root for their clients and share the same optimism for love but the real issue lies within the script. Director and writer Christos Nikou had an opportunity to take this “Black Mirror” style idea and turn it into something thrilling with higher stakes and gorier shots, instead it cuts away whenever fingernails are pulled and there’s no consequence for people if they step out of their test-proven matches. 

Aside from a lackluster screenplay, the score and cinematography match the eerie theme at hand and the pressures that our heroine faces with her conflicted feelings. The performances from Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson carry the film and do what they can, especially Jessie Buckley who swaps her thick Irish accent for a convincing American one and is luminous throughout the film. 

Though the film Nikou’s message is clear — love is not a science and can’t be manufactured or determined by a machine and while the film is shot on 35mm making it seem better and more artistic than it is, “Fingernails” fails to live up to its full potential.

"Fingernails" played as a part of the Special Presentation program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.


Arab American filmmaker Ruby Malek shines spotlight on Saudi talent  

Arab American filmmaker Ruby Malek shines spotlight on Saudi talent  
Updated 28 September 2023
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Arab American filmmaker Ruby Malek shines spotlight on Saudi talent  

Arab American filmmaker Ruby Malek shines spotlight on Saudi talent  

LOS ANGELES: Arab American filmmaker Ruby Malek is shining a spotlight on Saudi talent in the 10-episode docuseries “Herstory” which follows the journeys of Saudi’s modern-day female music stars.  

“We were just fascinated by the amount of talent because a lot of these artists are self-taught. And, you know, there were no music schools that they went to. There wasn't like a piano teacher that would teach these women,” said Malek to Arab News.  

“A lot of these artists actually didn't show their identity, didn't show their faces, and weren't really out there... We're still talking about 2020 now, so it wasn't like now in 2023.”  

Chronicling these artists' struggles, triumphs and their place in the cultural history of the Kingdom, the series blends the passion for music-infused storytelling Ruby honed making music videos and her skills as a documentarian.  

“I'm the generation that grew up watching MTV, VH1, so I was very into the various reality shows, and that's what I kind of fell into. I fell into creating reality shows and formats, and so went from music videos to reality shows, documentaries. And then one thing led to another,” said Malek.  

Motivated by the positive changes of Saudi Vision 2030, Malek sought to showcase a side of Saudi Arabia that she had not seen in the West. With the series having opened doors for the creator, she’s excited to continue working in the Kingdom.  

“I actually have been back to Saudi. I shot a show for Vice, and yes, I would definitely (work there again). I mean, as a producer, there's so much potential and there's so many stories to be told that I think I will be going there more often and very soon,” she said.  


Review: Wes Anderson returns to Roald Dahl with ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’

Review: Wes Anderson returns to Roald Dahl with ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’
Updated 28 September 2023
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Review: Wes Anderson returns to Roald Dahl with ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’

Review: Wes Anderson returns to Roald Dahl with ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’

LONDON: Given the critical success of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” in 2009, it is something of a surprise that it has taken so many years for Wes Anderson to return to the works of Roald Dahl.

Now, lo and behold, four adaptations have come along at once, with a quartet of Anderson-directed short films for Netflix — also including “The Swan,” “The Rat Catcher” and “Poison” — released at daily intervals this week.

Anderson has assembled an fine troupe of actors, many of whom appear across the four stories, and first turns his inimitable, behind-the-curtain style to “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”

As perhaps only Anderson could, the director leans into the multi-layered storytelling, including a narrator (Dahl himself, played by Ralph Fiennes) and a procession of deadpan, to-camera monologues from his cast, which includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Rupert Friend and Richard Ayoade.

Bored, greedy bachelor Henry Sugar (Cumberbatch) stumbles across the story of Imdad Khan (Kingsley), a circus performer who taught himself to see with his eyes closed. Sniffing an opportunity for limitless profit, Sugar tries to develop the same power so that he can make a killing in the world’s casinos.

Because it is a Wes Anderson film, the audience is invited to share in every aspect of the storytelling — whether it is the actors taking on multiple roles, the visible stagehands, the off-screen noises or the occasional glimpses beyond the sets, there is a decidedly theater-like aesthetic at play.

For Anderson, the telling of the story is, in fact, part of that story — and the relationship between author, narrator, actors and audience shifts and pirouettes throughout the 39 minutes.

“Henry Sugar” is one of Dahl’s more upbeat tales, removed from the naivety of the writer’s children’s stories and perhaps lacking some of the more macabre leanings of his adult work.

The cast certainly commits, all throwing themselves into the straightlaced performances. Although it makes for an odd experience — all lavish worldbuilding juxtaposed with starkly functional acting — it somehow works.

Much like Dahl himself, there is an eccentricity about Anderson’s style that makes his films captivating, and the prospect of more work to come an intriguing one.