There was music legend Lionel Richie and Greek composer Yanni and Italian opera star Andrea Bocelli. And then, out of the winter desert in Saudi Arabia, the Iranian singers took to the stage, Middle East Eye reported.
Their performance in early March took place at Tantora, the cultural festival held among the ancient ruins in the northwestern town of Al-Ula since 2018 under the guidance of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Along with cracking down on dissidents and rivals, leading the kingdom into Yemen’s war and attempting to diversify away from oil, the young prince has also been promoting Saudi Arabia as a tourism and entertainment destination.
This includes public events that would have been unthinkable in the kingdom until recently, including women’s professional wrestling, Halloween celebrations and performances from musicians who once would have triggered Saudi’s morality police.
But Tantora, like the other events, has courted controversy as well as media attention. Now Iranians are questioning why the popular singers – flown in from the U.S. where they live in self-exile – would have performed at a festival in a country that many Iranians consider to be a long-standing enemy.
“Those singers forgot their nationalism and embraced bin Salman for a few dollars,” Maysam, an Iranian-Arab working in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, told Middle East Eye this week. “I think this new thing is a behind-the-curtain plan, which is probably establishing a new base for concerts instead of Dubai.”
One of those who performed at Tantora was the singer Ebi. Saeed Shariati, a prominent reformist, tweeted that he had many happy memories of songs by the singer – but as far as he was concerned now, the star might as well be dead.
“He unfortunately passed away in Jeddah yesterday. Rest in peace. The [one under the guise of Ebi] is just an entertainer at the service of bin Salman,” read Shariati’s tweet.
Some Iranians are also asking whether the two-day performance is only the beginning of a wider plan for the kingdom, which has established fresh Iranian media outlets in recent years, to revamp its reputation among Iranians.
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