MOHAMED KHOULAIDI

DOHA NOTED vocalist Maher Zain enthralled a large audience of fans at the opera house Katara, the Cultural Village (Katara) with his lovely performance during the first Anasheed (religious songs) festival.

The festival under the slogan ‘Welcome Ramadan’ was sponsored by the General Organisation of the Cultural Village.

The session was introduced by Ahmed al Jarbi, presenter of the weekly programme Koran Channel broadcast from Doha.

Jarbi said that Maher has more than four million fans on his Facebook page and that his song ‘God Willing’ has been viewed more than 20 million times.

After Maher made his entry on the stage, he started with ‘Prayer Be Upon Him O Prophet’ after which he sang a song in English titled ‘One Big Family’, which the audience echoed along.

When he started singing about the Arab countries which have witnessed or are still witnessing the Arab Spring such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria, there were loud cheers and acclamations of the word ‘Huriya’ (Arabic word for freedom).

Maher also enchanted his fans with his song ‘Thank God’, the first song that he composed, distributed, and performed. He played on the piano as he performed the song. Maher did not limit himself to singing in Arabic and English but also performed a song in Urdu, “My Lord, bless and pray always and forever”. He sang “The number one for me” as a tribute to mothers.

Maher concluded the event by praising married couples and those preparing for marriage by singing for them: “God bless you both and have his blessing in you” which is a quote from the Hadith.