Why you need to be at this year's Ajyal Tunes performances

The Ajyal Film Festival is one of the region’s biggest film festivals which celebrates more than just cinema.

Typically, music is not the first thought to come to mind when film festivals are brought up, but Qatar’s much-awaited Ajyal Film Festival‘s vision extends beyond the norm.

This year’s one-week-long celebration is set to showcase more than just brilliant film talents. After all, the world of art extends beyond what you can see.

And Ajyal Tunes is ready to prove that.

Tens of local musicians have gathered to give the community a taste of melodic creativity through virtual initiatives and in-person concerts. Echoing its success, Ajyal Tunes has been part of the Ajyal Festival for three years and has been dubbed as one of the most exciting parts of the festival.

For this year, the programme will feature three concerts in the evenings, giving the audience a night to remember. Some 25 artists will be on stage flaunting their musical talents after weeks of practice led by Dana Al-Meer, the curator of Ajyal Tunes.

Apart from the show, Ajyal Tunes also provides a unique experience for the artists involved – all of whom have been training for four days a week for almost three months, Al Meer told Doha News.

For this year, the lineup is glistening with local talents, in addition to special international guests to make the show one to remember.

Al Meer’s goal for this year’s Ajyal Tunes is to give a different perspective for the underground talents, opening them up to a new vision of musical personality.

“One of the most challenging aspects of Ajyal is giving them another mentality about how to become an artist because of what they usually see on TV where artists are divas and rockstars,” she added.

“I am trying to show them that being an artist is all about connecting your heart and your brain at the same time. You know what you’re saying; you know what you’re delivering and you’re trying your best to connect with people. Artists are part of the community and they are humans.”

Ajyal Tunes aims to bring unique segments to light – providing a new way of performing.

“The song, let’s say has been played with a guitar only. We bring a new instrument into it, maybe a saxophone, maybe a flute, maybe a piano. So we change even the arrangements of how we sing and the beat of the song,” Al Meer explained.

On Thursday, the team will engage in a spectacular show featuring Film Tunes; Friday will focus on World Tunes and for the geeks, a Geekdom Night will be held on Saturday.

The events will feature a variety of music genres, including Disney classics, Bollywood, world music, and classic songs from different anime and animated series from the 1970s to today.

World Tunes will also feature special guests from Jordan, Ahmad Al Zmaili & Mohammad Bashar.

And the best part? All events are completely free of charge.

“I’m super proud and I’m amazed by their talent. I am excited for Qatar to actually watch them and see how amazing they are, how talented, what have they learned, what we’ve been working really hard on for the past three months,” Dana said.

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