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Assala to Asharq Al-Awsat: Gulf Songs Bring out the Best in my Voice

Syrian artist Assala Nasri visits the Baheya Centre for Early Detection and Treatment of Women's Cancer.
Syrian artist Assala Nasri visits the Baheya Centre for Early Detection and Treatment of Women's Cancer.
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Assala to Asharq Al-Awsat: Gulf Songs Bring out the Best in my Voice

Syrian artist Assala Nasri visits the Baheya Centre for Early Detection and Treatment of Women's Cancer.
Syrian artist Assala Nasri visits the Baheya Centre for Early Detection and Treatment of Women's Cancer.

Syrian artist Assala Nasri said that she is pleased with the feedback she has received over her new album “Never Give Up”, which includes 20 songs sung in the Gulf dialect. Many of the songs were recorded in collaboration with Gulf poets and producers and the album was released on several digital platforms and apps.

During her visit to Cairo's Baheya Centre for Early Detection and Treatment of Women's Cancer on Wednesday, she added that her songs “champion women's causes and express their tribulations in all their forms."

Elaborating on the album and the feedback she received, Assala told Asharq Al-Awsat that her work reflects her genuine feelings and that she chooses her words very carefully and goes over albums several times to ensure that their intended message reaches audiences.

Asked about her absence from the latest edition of the Arab Music Festival, which was organized by the Egyptian Opera House, given that she participates almost every year, she remarked: "I was unlucky to have not participated this year. I feel terrible about not being able to attend to personal circumstances, especially since it is genuinely an outlet for musical creativity." Assala stressed that she see the Egyptian Opera House as her home and singing in it as a privilege.

On her latest Gulf song album, she said: "I am a Bahraini from the Arab Gulf, and I love Gulf lyrics because they bring out the best in my voice and give me the space needed to diversify my style. On top of that, Gulf audiences are unique, and I feel the strength of their love whenever I perform a concert there.”

Asked about whether she would consider an acting role, the Syrian star ruled out the idea for the time being, saying: "It takes a lot of preparation and involves lengthy work hours."

She emphasized her support for women in general and breast cancer patients in particular: "I am a strong supporter of women on all levels, and I have an abundance of feelings and emotions through which I strive to express women's pain. I am so biased towards women that some men fear me; I always see it during my daily interactions."

Assala said that the coronavirus pandemic did not prevent her from visiting the hospital. "If this were the last journey I take in my life, I would be satisfied with the pride I felt from being able to bring joy to this large audience.”

“I hope my 27-year singing career will be full of grace and free of any blemishes. I hope this audience will remain supportive and that I will continue to feel their positive impact on my life.”

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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.