Competition between famous female Arab singers is heating up over who has the highest album sales and appearances in advertisements.
Now several stars have accused one another of stealing advertisement from each other. Some of the blame has been shifted to companies that work with multiple stars.
According to the London daily Elaph, Lebanese singer Elissa is involved in several law suits. Lebanese singer Amal Hijazi has sued Elissa, accusing her of taking her place in an advertisement for a famous jewelry company. Amal claims that she had signed a contract with the company to appear in the ad.
Amal said that the jewelry company called her manager and told him that the company had replaced Amal with another star.
“I do not hold a grudge against Elissa because the change came from within the company,” said Amal, on the entertainment show “Inta Meen” (Who Are You), aired on Abu Dhabi satellite channel.
Disputes have arisen between Lebanese singers Haifa and Elissa after Haifa began appearing in commercials for Pepsi Cola Company. Previously Elissa represented Pepsi in the Middle East. Rumors claim that Elissa was reluctant to renew her contract with the company.
Haifa commented on Elissa’s reaction, reminding her that Lebanese singer Nawal Al Zoghbi welcomed Elissa when she first became affiliated with Pepsi. Nawal was the first Arab singer to have a contract with Pepsi in the Middle East.
The rivalry between Haifa and Elissa is still going on over perfume advertisements. Haifa revealed that she was working on releasing a new line of perfumes for an international company. The company wants to produce a pink bottle for younger generations and a gold bottle for the older generations, but due to a number of circumstances, the project did not go through for Haifa.
Another rivalry exists is between Lebanese singer Miriam Fares and Egyptian singer Shireen Abed Al Wahab. Rumors claim that Shireen did not come on time to film an advertisement for an Egyptian phone company and the company replaced her with Miriam.
Miriam denies the rumors and said that she never knew Shireen was the company’s first choice. To Miriam’s surprise, she is being paid more than the previous stars that appeared in the same company’s advertisements.
