JadaL launches International Summer Festival’s 17th edition

CAIRO - 15 July 2019: The 17th International Summer Festival is set to kick off on July 26 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The festival offers numerous concerts and workshops as well as distinguished seminars and lectures on music, singing, theater and independent cinema.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) said in a press statement on July 15 that the arts center of the Cultural Communication Department of the library will organize the festival, which runs until August 31. The festival aims to spread culture and artistic taste, support artistic quality and revive artistic and cultural heritage.

Jordanian musical group, JadaL, is scheduled to open this year's festival, which will be attended by many distinguished Egyptian artists, including Ali el-Haggar, Omar Khairat, Medhat Saleh and Khaled Selim, along with some young artists such as Nesma Abdel Aziz, Mohamed Mohsen, Nuran Abu Talib, Nesma Mahjoub, Syrian artist Tariq Suwaidan and Bashir.

Also, the play "Amin and Partners" by Ahmed Amin will stage in the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony will also include poetry citing by Amr Hassan and Amr Qatamesh and a stand-up comedy show by Mohamed Helmi.

The festival program includes - in addition to musical performances - special performances, where "Naghama Horra" (Free tone) competition for local independent teams, a symposium on the formation of musical ensembles in Egypt, workshops on rhythm development, playwriting, music compositions, voice training and artistic workshops for children will take place.

Most performances will stage on the Grand Theater, the Small and the External Plaza at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

JadaL (Controversy) is a Jordanian Arabic pop, and rock band, formed in 2003 by Mahmoud Radaideh, a composer, songwriter, guitarist, music producer and vocalist.

When JadaL released their re-arranged cover single "El-Tobah", a famous song by the legendary Abdel-Halim Hafez, their musical style was immediately coined as Arabic rock, and was described as groundbreaking due to its unique blend of rock and Arabic rhythms.

JadaL then released their first original single "Salma", a song which Radaideh wrote and composed for his niece, which quickly became a radio hit and gained many followers; thus cementing JadaL as one of the most successful Arabic rock bands in the whole region.

In 2009, JadaL released their debut album, "Arabic Rocks". With its 14 songs, the album was not only a huge success, but also an important production that reaffirmed their music signature and confirmed their principles. It moved them to the front lines of the local and regional independent music scene.

"Arabic Rocks", written mainly by Radaideh, also featured Palestinian Hip-hop band DAM on the track "Ya Bani Adam" (You, Human Being).

The second album, "El Makina" (The Machine), was released in December 2012, and was composed, written and produced by Mahmoud Radaideh. The album marked another era of tremendous success and unexpected spread out far beyond the Levant’s borders.

Since then JadaL’s popularity has been on the rise, and they’ve been touring in several Arab countries including Palestine, Egypt and Morocco.