Arab fans were disappointed to hear that prominent Lebanese singer Fayrouz will not be participating in the annual Shopping Festival in Dubai, where she has been a distinguished guest of this event numerous times since it was launched in 1996.
The festival, which will be held from the beginning of January until February 15, is considered the key event in the Arab world and attracts millions of shoppers every year. The general coordinator for the festival Sa’eed Naboudeh regretfully announced that Fayrouz will not be in Dubai this year, but he promised the shoppers big surprises waiting in store for them. He added that he welcomes the participation of any Egyptian singer wishing to take part in the festival, especially since none had participated in the previous years.
Naboudeh asserted that they are not competing with other similar festivals, and that they are aiming for big tourism projects. According to the organizers, the festival’s budget is 70 Dirhams and makes 5 billion in profit every year; this sum makes around 20% of the national gross income. The festival attracted more than two million shoppers last year and this number is expected to rise this year.
On a different note, the film "Kunna Nuhib Ba’dana Aktar" (We Used to Love Each Other More) was supposed to be one of the main highlights of the First World Festival for Documentary Films, which took place in Beirut, but most Lebanese were looking forward to watching last week but ended up not seeing. Director of the festival Mohammad Hashem had received a phone call from Fairouz’s attorney a day before the scheduled screening, which was to be the first international screening of the film, demanding that the movie be stopped from screening or they will file charges against the festival. The next day the attorney showed up with two representatives from the court and handed the director official papers that state the banning of the movie from broadcasting.
The Dutch director of the film Jack Janson was very disappointed because he wanted to know what Lebanese fans think about their superstar through his film. Lebanese sources said that Fairouz and her daughter director Rima Rahbani objected on having the song "Suboh Wa Massah" (Day and Night), despite the fact that they had previously gave the director their approval of its inclusion, in addition to their objection on the use of photographs in the film without buying the right to do so.
The director of the festival expressed his anger towards the entire incident, facing complications from Lebanese, saying that he had put great efforts in making the festival of international standards. He added that the producer of the movie assured that he paid all the intellectual property fees and he also paid Fairouz's photographer Varogian for using his photos. Hashem added assured that he has all the needed documents to prove that he did not violate any law or regulation regarding the intellectual property rights.
According to the London based daily, Al Hayat, Hashem noted that the movie is very good and it shows Fairouz Singing her new song (Sobeh Wa Masa) at the Beit El Din Festival and several interviews were made with many of Fairouz fans including politicians and other officials all around Lebanon.
Fairouz's daughter Rima explained that the director told Fairouz that he will include parts of her song in his movie and not the entire song. Rima added that she had requested to see the movie before it airs but the director of the festival did not contact her. Fairouz's attorney sent seven warnings to the director, but he did not respond causing Fairouz to take legal actions during the festival. The producer expressed his astonishment about the director’s actions and said that he did not know that such circumstances took place. –Albawaba.com
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
