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‘Bi Nos Aley’ Puts the Bride of Lebanon Back on the Artistic Map

A previous concert in Aley (Aley Municipality)
A previous concert in Aley (Aley Municipality)
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‘Bi Nos Aley’ Puts the Bride of Lebanon Back on the Artistic Map

A previous concert in Aley (Aley Municipality)
A previous concert in Aley (Aley Municipality)

Aley, dubbed the “bride of summer getaways” for its cool climate, draws Lebanese citizens, residents, expats, and tourists, especially from the Arab world.

For many years, it was a seasonal hub for those seeking entertainment and art. Casino Piscine Aley was among the major concert venues in the city hosting Arab stars in the sixties, and it continued to be until the 2000s.

Legendary singers performed there in the sixties and seventies, including Umm Kulthum, Farid Al-Atrash, Abdel Halim Hafez, Warda, and Gulf stars.

In 2000, it hosted its last major concert, with Hani Shaker, George Wassouf, and Kadim Al Sahir taking part. And while this golden era will never be forgotten, the bride of summer getaways is back on the artistic map after three long years of absence.

Child Smile Lebanon and Smile Way sports have joined forces to host the Bi Nos Aley (In the Middle of Aley) music and dance festival. It will be held in Aley Square from September 9 to 11, and is open to all ages.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Child Smile founder Antoinette Karam, who organized the festival, stressed that it is high time for the city of Aley to take back its place on the artistic map after the pandemic and successive crises took it off.

“The need to bring back happiness to this city whose people, like all Lebanese, long for hope and joy, was obvious to us. And so, we decided to organize the festival in cooperation with the Municipality of Aley. It will allow the bride of Lebanon to make a strong comeback after a long period of absence.”

Several music and dance events, as well as entertaining activities, feature in the festival’s program. Commenting on their choice for the guest of honor, Mayez Al Bayaa, Karam said: “We contacted several Lebanese recording artists, and Al Bayaa is a dear guest. His presence will draw many attendees because he has a large audience in the region. The revival of this festival will serve as a prelude for other events in the future.”

Bi Nos Aley also includes dance and folkloric performances, with the Lebanese Dabkeh on the lineup. The festival will also host stars from the Voice Kids and rap bands, Karam added.

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119-year-old Brazilian Woman Stakes Claim as World's Oldest Person

Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, 119, sits in her house in Itaperuna, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, January 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, 119, sits in her house in Itaperuna, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, January 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
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119-year-old Brazilian Woman Stakes Claim as World's Oldest Person

Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, 119, sits in her house in Itaperuna, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, January 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, 119, sits in her house in Itaperuna, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, January 14, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Two months away from what she says is her 120th birthday, Deolira Gliceria Pedro da Silva, a great-grandmother from the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is rushing to be recognized as the world’s oldest living person by the Guinness World Records.

The institution currently features another Brazilian, Inah Canabarro Lucas, a nun from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul as the oldest living person at 116 years, but Deolira’s family and doctors are confident that she will soon take the religious woman’s title.

“She is still not in the book, but she is the oldest in the world according to the documents we have on her, as I recently discovered,” said Deolira’s granddaughter Doroteia Ferreira da Silva, who is half her age, Reuters reported.

The documents show that Pedro da Silva was born on March 10th 1905 in the rural area of Porciuncula, a small town in the state of Rio. She now lives in a colorfully painted house in Itaperuna, where her two granddaughters Doroteia, 60, and Leida Ferreira da Silva, 64, take care of her.

The grandmother is also supervised by doctors and researchers who are interested in how she outlived the average life expectancy in Brazil, which currently sits at 76.4 years, by more than four decades.

“Mrs. Deolira, in 2025, will be 120 years old. She is in a good general state of health for her condition, she is not taking any medication,” said geriatric doctor Juair de Abreu Pereira, who checks up on Pedro da Silva frequently and is assisting her family in the process with Guinness World Records.

In a statement, Guinness said it couldn't confirm receiving Pedro da Silva's application, because it receives many from people around the world who claim to be the oldest living person.

Major floods in the region almost twenty years ago destroyed most of Deolira’s original documents, her doctor said. That may pose a challenge for the official recognition of her age.

Even if her age is not precise, Pedro da Silva is certainly older than 100 years, according to Mateus Vidigal, a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo who has studied her case as part of a project to understand the super elderly population of Brazil.

“Mrs. Deolira has not been excluded from the study, but there is this fragility which is the lack of documentation that is approved by those organizations,” Vidigal said, referring to vetting institutions such as the Guinness World Records.

Pedro Silva’s healthy diet and sleeping habits are key to her longevity, according to Dr. Pereira. To this day, she has a good interaction with her family and likes eating bananas.

“I wish I could get to her age and be like that,” Ferreira da Silva, her granddaughter, said. “While we have high blood pressure and diabetes, she does not have any of that.”