عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

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.
TT
TT

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.”

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

ByteDance Signs AI Copyright Pact with Hollywood Trade Group

The ByteDance logo is seen in this illustration taken February 8, 2025. (Reuters)
The ByteDance logo is seen in this illustration taken February 8, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
TT

ByteDance Signs AI Copyright Pact with Hollywood Trade Group

The ByteDance logo is seen in this illustration taken February 8, 2025. (Reuters)
The ByteDance logo is seen in this illustration taken February 8, 2025. (Reuters)

ByteDance ‌and the Motion Picture Association on Monday signed an agreement to strengthen copyright safeguards on the Chinese company's AI video and image-generation models, months after the Hollywood trade group challenged its handling of ‌intellectual property.

The ‌deal, which covers ‌ByteDance's ⁠Seedance video and Seedream ⁠image-generation models, follows a cease-and-desist letter the MPA sent in February over these tools.

Disney and other studios in ⁠February raised concerns the ‌AI ‌tools could generate content featuring copyrighted ‌characters and celebrity likenesses ‌without authorization.

ByteDance said newer versions of the models include stronger intellectual-property protections.

Models ‌are offered through services including TikTok, CapCut and Dreamina.

The ⁠MPA's challenge came amid concerns that Seedance could generate content featuring copyrighted film and television characters without permission.

Both sides said they will continue collaborating on safeguards for copyrighted content as AI technology evolves.

Entertainment

Andrew Garfield Finds Wonder in Everyday Life in ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’

Andrew Garfield at a special screening of "The Magic Faraway Tree" in New York City on July 29. (Getty Images)
Andrew Garfield at a special screening of "The Magic Faraway Tree" in New York City on July 29. (Getty Images)
TT
TT

Andrew Garfield Finds Wonder in Everyday Life in ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’

Andrew Garfield at a special screening of "The Magic Faraway Tree" in New York City on July 29. (Getty Images)
Andrew Garfield at a special screening of "The Magic Faraway Tree" in New York City on July 29. (Getty Images)

Andrew Garfield wants audiences to look up from their phones and remember that there is still plenty of magic in the world around them.

That idea drew the two-time Oscar nominee to “The Magic Faraway Tree,” a family adventure about Tim, a stay-at-home father whose family is forced to reconsider life after his wife, Polly, quits her job. They move to the countryside, where their children discover the magical Faraway Tree and its ever-changing worlds, sending the family into a series of fantastical adventures. The film, based on Enid Blyton’s children’s books, arrives in US theaters on Friday.

For Garfield, the story’s themes of nature, imagination and community feel especially timely as technology increasingly shapes everyday life. “I think people are craving connection and community and a kind of reconnection to the earth and to each other,” he said.

Garfield said he became passionate about the project after reading Simon Farnaby’s screenplay. “I really just adore his sense of whimsy and heartfeltness and magic and joy,” he said. “I felt very, very passionate about it.”

Tim’s journey reflects the film’s larger ideas about finding wonder outside the routine and distractions of modern life. For Garfield, that sense of wonder extends beyond fantasy. “I think it’s all around us,” he said. “There are so many things to be in awe of on this planet.”

The film, he said, is ultimately about recognizing that “there’s magic in the ordinary” as well as in the extraordinary.

Garfield, whose credits include playing Spider-Man, says he is drawn to roles with an element of play, community and the natural world. He focuses on “anything that keeps me awake to the remembering of the connection that we have to each other, the connection we have to nature, how we are all interconnected,” he said.

Garfield grew up reading Enid Blyton’s “The Famous Five” with his brother but did not read “The Faraway Tree” series as a child. His mother introduced him to another beloved literary adventurer: Bilbo Baggins, the hero of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.”

“Any underdog story, really, those are the ones that get me,” Garfield said.

Another childhood escape was the video store. Garfield remembers being fascinated by the rows of VHS tapes and the possibilities behind their covers. The habit has survived in a new form in adulthood: spending an evening browsing streaming services without picking anything, enjoying the feeling of looking “into the windows of all these imaginary worlds.”

That may help explain why Garfield welcomes the resurgence of VHS and other analog technology among younger audiences.

“I dig that,” he said. “The regression to analog is looking good to me.”

Entertainment

Hayden Panettiere, who Starred in ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville,’ Dies at 36

FILE PHOTO: Hayden Panettiere at the SAP arena in Mannheim, Germany, May 4, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Hayden Panettiere at the SAP arena in Mannheim, Germany, May 4, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
TT
TT

Hayden Panettiere, who Starred in ‘Heroes’ and ‘Nashville,’ Dies at 36

FILE PHOTO: Hayden Panettiere at the SAP arena in Mannheim, Germany, May 4, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Hayden Panettiere at the SAP arena in Mannheim, Germany, May 4, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

Hayden Panettiere, star of popular television series including “Heroes” and “Nashville,” has died. She was 36.

Panettiere’s father, Skip, announced the actor’s death in a statement provided to ABC News on Sunday.

“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” his statement said.

No cause of death was announced, and a publicist for Hayden Panettiere did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press.

Panettiere, who would have turned 37 on Friday, began her career as a child actor in commercials and soap operas.

Her role as a cheerleader with superpowers in “Heroes” propelled her to fame in 2006, with the series revolving around the mantra “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”

“I think ‘Heroes’ is really hot because it’s just a really great combination of everything that people love — they love reality, they love sci-fi and things like X-Men where they get to dream of something bigger,” Panettiere told The Associated Press in 2008. “And at the core of it are these human stories that people can relate to, very rugged. And it’s just grabbed everyone in every age group.”

She went on to win three Teen Choice Awards for that role and was a Grammy Award nominee for a children’s spoken word album recorded a few years after the release of the animated movie “A Bug’s Life.”

Panettiere later played a brash country upstart opposite Connie Britton on “Nashville,” which aired on ABC for four seasons before being canceled and revived on CMT. She did her own singing in the show, which scored some hits on country charts, spawned US tours and earned Panettiere two supporting actress Golden Globe nominations. Panettiere had 11 songs recorded for “Nashville” appear on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs charts during the show’s run, including two featuring Britton.

Panettiere's younger brother, Jansen, who was also an actor, died of a heart condition in 2023, at age 28.

She had been open about her struggles with alcohol addiction and depression, including after the birth of her daughter with Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

In an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty after her memoir came out in May, Panettiere talked about the custody arrangement for her 11-year-old daughter, who lives full-time with Klitschko in Ukraine. News of the 2018 decision prompted headlines about Panettiere giving up custody of her daughter.

“I think there’s been this very common misconception that I just gave up my child,” she said. “That could not be farther from the truth.”

Panettiere said Klitschko suggested their daughter live with him full-time when the child was 2, as Panettiere struggled with mental health challenges and addiction. She said she was in a “horrible cycle for years of battling depression and anxiety and alcoholism and substance abuse” while “just trying to find my way back, my way out of the darkness.”

She entered rehab in 2015, while filming “Nashville.”

“I was the one who put myself in the first treatment center. I was drowning,” she said in a 2023 interview with Women’s Health magazine.

On Shetty’s podcast, Panettiere recalled the explosion of her fame when she was cast on “Heroes,” including the first time she was tracked by the paparazzi. When she’d imagined the moment as a younger actress, she’d planned to look chic.

Instead, she said, “it was just sheer terror.”

Panettiere also appeared in two of the “Scream” movies, starred as the title character in the 2009 film “I Love You Beth Cooper” and played the young daughter of a football coach in “Remember the Titans.” She had spoken positively about her experience filming “Remember the Titans,” saying she felt so similar to the character she played — Sheryl Yoast, the opiniated, football-loving daughter of Will Patton’s Coach Bill Yoast.