Natacha Atlas performing at 2016 Mawazine Festival. Photo by Youness Hamiddine
Natacha Atlas performing at 2016 Mawazine Festival. Photo by Youness Hamiddine

Mawazine 2016: Natacha Atlas in talks for a UAE show in November



World Music chanteuse Natacha Atlas could be he heading to the UAE for a concert performance towards the end of the year.

Speaking exclusively to The National on May 23, the Moroccan-Belgian artist and former member of the acclaimed group Transglobal Undergound, said she is presently considering a Gulf stopover as part of tour promoting her latest album Myriad Road.

“There is a proposal to go to Doha and the UAE,” she says.

“I would love to go and visit. I have always loved Khaleeji music, particularly its rhythms.”

Produced by celebrated Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, Myriad Road finds Atlas blending her sultry Arabic vocals with jazz arrangements.

“It is my first jazz album and I am really interested in exploring those sounds on the stage,” she says.

“The music is still new for me and it has been created especially for a live setting.”

The Mawazine Festival continues until May 28. For more details visit www.festivalmawazine.ma.

sasaeed@thenational.ae

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Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India

Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur

How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993

Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters

Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo

Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut

Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”