The Saudi satirical program “Studio 23”, presented by a number of comedy stars in Saudi Arabia, sparked a great controversy on social media after one of its episodes broadcast a paragraph in which Saudi artist Reem Abdullah imitated Egyptian singer Sherine Abdel Wahhab.
Reem Abdullah assumed the character of Sherine by imitating her shape, features, and way of singing, while performing Sherine’s well-known song “Jarh Tani”, but with replacing her words with other words, most notably the name of the song to become “Darb Tani”.
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Some of the song’s lyrics were in the form of a satirical comedic description of Sherine Abdel Wahab’s personal crises in recent times, in which Reem Abdullah said: “Tani’s beating is my heart. From the bed again, he hit me once and I said, hit my beloved Ghali.”
The lyrics of the song “Al-Mustabdela” alluded to the health condition that she was subjected to two months ago as a result of the psychological crisis and addiction, and stated in it: “From today, there is no addiction, there are no colors, from today, there is no drinking, there is no violin, there is no time.”
The satirical comic clip ended with a person imitating the role of her husband, Hossam Habib, sitting next to her and holding her hand, before they ran away together.
Criticism and anger on communication sites
This satirical clip, imitating the Egyptian artist Sherine Abdel Wahab, led to widespread criticism on most communication platforms, considering it bullying and an abuse of her personal life.
The first criticism came from her business manager, Ihab Saleh, in a tweet he posted on the Twitter platform, in which he vowed to take the necessary measures immediately.
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And Rehab Daher, the Lebanese journalist, considered in her tweet that the artist Sherine’s imitation in this way is not comical, saying that it is defamation, insult and bullying.
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Ayman Salem described what was presented in the program towards Sherine as shameful and immoral, and it included insults and provocative omissions, as he put it.
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Anas Abbas said in his tweet: “There is a difference between respectful imitation or imitation in which there is a lack of politeness and respect.”
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In her tweet, Wadad was surprised by the lack of solidarity of many artists with their colleague Sherine Abdel Wahhab, for fear that their personal interests would be threatened.
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explanation
Others defended the satirical comedy program “Studio 23”, considering that the imitation of the artist Sherine is only out of comedy and entertainment.
Khaled, in his response to one of the tweeters criticizing this method of comedy, asked for openness of heart, and said: “Oh, Mahmoud, the program is a comedy, and it has years. I mean, the topic is very normal. Expand your chest, my love.”
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And Muhammad Asiri considered that the matter was very normal, and he said in his tweet: “The matter is very normal. How many of your films have Gulf nationals, and we did not say anything. It came to Sherine.”
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Daghash Al-Daghaish asked about the reason for all this anger at Sherine’s imitation, stressing that the topic does not go beyond being a kind of comedy and entertainment.
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The Syndicate of Musical Professions is responding
The Egyptian Syndicate of Musical Professions responded to what it considered a mockery of singer Sherine Abdel Wahab by imitating her in a satirical comedy TV show on an Arab station.
The union’s spokesperson, Muhammad Abdullah, issued a statement, most notably:
- Everyone appreciates the audience’s shock when they hear any negative news about an artist they love and appreciate, but on the other hand, people’s lives are full of successes and failures.
- It is not permissible to confront any failure of any person with bullying and ridicule, especially since failure negatively affects the life of its owner, so we do not make the matter worse by bullying and ridiculing it.
- If the artist has credit with his fans, his credit should not be suddenly canceled in the hearts of his fans in the event of any disturbances in his personal life.
- We send a message to the bullies and the owners of the arrows directed at the artist Sherine, who is : “Learn to support and stand by the person in any ordeal he goes through, so what about the artist who needs psychological and moral support so that he can confront his audience later, and stay away from gloating, bullying and ridicule.”
