Dana Alfardan eager to contribute to Qatar music infrastructure

The Ministry of Culture, through the Music Affairs Centre (MAC) held a press conference on Sunday to launched the Nagam 2023 contest, in the presence of Maryam Yassin al-Hammadi, director of the Department of Culture and Arts.
The contest aims to discover talent in the field of performing arts in music and singing, in order to achieve the objectives of the Ministry of Culture, especially the Department of Culture and Arts, to support the cultural and artistic movement in the country with the aim of sustaining it and giving the opportunity to talented people to discover their capacities and determine their paths.
"We thank all Participants, supporters and creators who participate in this competition. We appreciate the efforts of the Music Affairs Centre which provides more spaces for cultural expression by engaging communities to achieve cultural rights for all.”
Khaled al-Salem, director of the MAC, said: “This is the third edition of the Nagam contest, a singing competition aimed to attract citizens and residents of Qatar, of all ages. The current edition will be full of talents worthy of respect and publicity.”
Artist Ali Abdel Sattar, a member of the jury for the Arab category, said he is happy with this participation, hoping that he and the members of the jury will contribute to present singing talents worthy of the singing scene in Qatar.
Artist Ghanem Shaheen said: “I am very honoured to be part of the jury, which was born big and brought out to the singing arena distinguished talents who were able to make a way for themselves through this competition.”
Shaheen gave important advice to the talents participating in the competition that is to work hard on continuous development, saying: “We must continue to learn, perform, and work hard. We do not stop at this competition and winning it or participating in it only, but rather you, as young talents, you must see this competition as a starting point.”
Artist Nasser Muhamed said that he was happy to participate in the Nagam contest in its third edition, wishing everyone success, stressing at the same time that his participation as an actor is not strange since acting and singing fall under the banner of art in general.”
Dana Alfardan, a member of the foreign category jury, said: “It’s an honour to participate in this panel alongside two people who have been instrumental in the foundation of the organisation of the last two editions. I hope that together we also can continue to contribute to the music infrastructure of this country and to bring energy and inspiration to the incredible talent out there.”
Dr Nasser Suhaim said: “I am happy with the experience, and this is not the first time I cooperate as a jury member with the Music Affairs Centre. I previously participated in the Awtar (strings) Instrumentation Competition, in cooperation with Qatar University. I will also invite the winners of the foreign category to participate in the Beautiful Time Classics, foreign version, as we previously did with the winners of the Nagham competition, in its first and second versions, when they participated in the Arabic version of the Beautiful Time Classics concert.”
Giovanni Pasini said: “We found wonderful voices worthy for the competition, and I am personally pleased to meet them in the next stages.” Pasini concluded.
The competition will be held in two versions, the first is the singing category for Arabic speakers, and the other is for non-Arabic speakers, where there will be two different judging committees for each of the two categories.