Just two years ago young star Janat went from ‘rising artist’ to an established and well known artist. Her delicate and emotion filled voice touched her audience and made her songs irresistible to any remotely musical ear. And now Janat is planning to serenade her audience once again with her new album which is to be released in the summer of this year. Janat was also honored at the 6th of October University in Egypt as part of the 5th International Cultural Festival.

Photos of Janat at the International Cultural Festival

These are some photos of Mayada El Henawi and Kathem El Saher on Al-Arrab

You definitely know Faudel ... the cute Algerian Rai singer ... right?
Well, although he's famous and is living THE life in France, things haven't been looking good for him in the past few months.
Rumor has it that Faudel had a few fall outs with his family, especially his mom, and with a certain model who recently married the president of France!!!
Yes ... according to the rumor, Faudel was in a relationship with Carla Bruni, but she dumped him for a 'way more famous' dude ... Nicolas Sarkozy!
All this took it's toll on Faudel and that drove him into a serious depression and an attempted suicide! Reports have it that Faudel threw himself off his balcony, but he was quickly taken to hospital where he received the needed treatment and survived.

Morrocan X-Factor winner Rajaa Kasbani was always a promising star, but with Mirna Khayat the promising become outstanding! Rajaa just finished filming her first music video for the song ‘Mesh Helw Ashano’ and it was directed by Mirna Khayat. The storyline of the music video is a highly interesting one, it revolves around a CEO surrounded by beautiful women and Rajaa is one of them. Mirna claims that the music video has enough comedy in it to make it interesting but not so much that it is ridiculous.

Photo from Rajaa Kasbani video clip

After baby season elapsed in Hollywood it is just starting in the Arab world! Singer Ahlam was fortunate enough to have her precious bundle of joy on Valentines Day at the ‘Will Care’ hospital in Dubai. Ahlam and her husband Mubarak El Hagery named their baby girl Fatma and she is happy and healthy in her mother’s arms. According to Ahlam’s companion Ahlam is doing well and is ecstatic to be able to carry her baby girl after a difficult birth. Fatma was delivered by C-Section and after several days of pain and exhaustion on Ahlam’s part!

The Wikipedia search engine has become a part and parcel of culture nowadays and provides us with information on a variety of topics. However, Syrian singer Nora Rahal was allegedly very offended by the section on her and sent Wikipedia a very harsh letter of condemnation. Apparently the section on Nora was a Syrian singer with a Lebanese background who started singing at a late age. The article went on to state that although she was strictly against seduction in her music videos she later changed her path and went onto nearly full nudity!

Singing sensation Fula has been in Berlin recently but unfortunately it wasn’t to catch up on some holiday time but to get an operation for her neck and spine. Fula who has been extremely quiet about this medical trauma says that the operation took two long hours. However, the pain that she suffered after the operation was incomparable anything she had ever experienced. The man who operated on Fula is known as the best surgeon in the entirety of Germany and Fula said she was proud that he happened to be Arab.

‘Lel Sahar’ is the name of the new duo that will be bringing together two great artists: Hana El Idrissi and Joe Ashqar. The song is obviously one that speaks of love and deep romance and Hana says she is ecstatic that the launch of her career will be with a prodigy like Joe Ashqar. She added that she is a great fan of Joe and his work and that this duo will hopefully help her gain a larger fan base. The song’s music video will be filmed within the next week so we should anticipate the launching of the song sooner rather then later.

Photos of Hanaa with Joe

You may recall an article I wrote a while back about the rumor that legendary Iraqi singer Kathem El Saher refused to have Haleema Boland present the episode of ‘Taratata’ that he was to star in. Well this week Kathem was at a press conference and he seemed very keen to answer all questions and did not want to leave but was forced to as the organizers claimed he had rehearsals. The questions fired at Kathem were expectedly heated and one of them was about why he had excluded Haleema Boland! He replied that this was in no way true and that he does not involve himself in these details as he understands it is none of his business.

Justin Timberlake held a smashing concert last night in Abu Dhabi at the Emirates Palace Hotel.
This concert was the last one of his FutureSex/LoveShow world tour.

Yesterday, it was announced that JT has been nominated for 5 Grammy awards! Congrats Justin!

If you live in the United Arab Emirates and have attended the concert, please tell us all about it!

Photos of Justin Timberlake in Abu Dhabi

Syrian singer Nora Rahal has had quite a slow career which she says is due to the fact that her family comes first, but when she releases an album it usually sees a spectacular success. Obviously the haters of success out there know that and so someone, who Nora says is not in the music business, has circulated a rumor that she was arrested whilst possessing drugs. Nora, who claims she didn’t want to respond to the rumors, said that at this point for all we know the accusation is built on computer generated photographs.

Recently Abdullah Bil Khair arrived in Dubai to film an episode of ‘Taratata’ and he was joined in this episode by several other artists including Shaban Abdel Raheem. After the episode was concluded, however, Bil Khair had an interesting announcement: he and ‘Shabola’ would be recording a duo together. Bil Khair added that he had requested that Shaban be a guest on ‘Taratata’ with him as well because he is a great fan of his style. Bil Khair honestly thinks that his duo with Shaban will receive an astounding welcome by listeners.

Asala is preparing to film a video clip for her song ‘La Takhaf’ (Do Not Fear) from her new album ‘Sawaha Kalby’ (My Heart Did It). Asala says that she will be once again having her husband Tarek El Eryan directing the video clip for her after the immense success she saw when she worked with him in the past. Asala stressed that contrary to common ideas, her husband is not keeping her to himself and not allowing her to work with other directors. Asala claims that she feels that she has nothing to fear when working with Tarek and that had she found the ideas and the professionalism she found in Tarek with another director, she would have worked with him.

• Rotana TV began airing Mohammed Abdo's coming soon ads in the beginning of Ramadan. Now, they have begun airing coming soon ads for Mohammed Fouad and Wael Kfoury. It doesn't take a genius to figure out when these albums are all coming out! The Eid album hype season is open for business!

• Nawal El Zoghbi is fulfilling her return to record label Rotana in 2 months according to her calculations. Nawal is currently putting the finishing touches on the album in Egypt. She has worked with many composers and songwriters but kept the details to herself. The report on Rotana's Akher Al Akhbar showed Nawal listening to a ballad with electric guitar, composed by Amr Mustafa. The few details she did divulge were that she was working with Amr Mustafa, Mohammed Rahim, and the 2-month deadline. Nawal also said that there will be numerous styles on the album, ranging from maqsoom, to Western, to what she called "cha-cha".

• Mohammed, the Syrian winner of X Factor's second season, also met with Akher Al Akhbar after performing in Rotana Cafe, Syria. The 17-year-old singer told the reporter that he has an Egyptian and a Khaliji single coming up. One video clip will be shot soon for one of the singles, and the album should follow afterwards. The remainder of the album is expected to be in the Lebanese dialect.