The Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) revealed that a total of 1,348 participants will compete in its 8th Award for Reciting the Holy Qur’an held under the slogan “Beautify the Qur’an with Your Voices”, representing 61 Arab and non-Arab countries.
About 653 from 17 Arab countries are participating in the award, while 695 are from 44 non-Arab countries.
Countries from the Arab Maghreb have the highest number of participants (294), followed by Egypt, Sudan, and Somalia (218).
Participants from countries of the Arab Mashriq reached 98, while from the Gulf countries, there are 43 competing for the award.
A total of 100 participants will be selected by a judging committee to compete in the qualifying stage in Doha through 20 episodes aired on TV.
Each episode will see five contestants facing off for only one to then qualify for the semi-final stage which will include 20 contestants in total.
Five backup competitors will be determined through five other episodes.
Only five will remain in the final stage in which the top three winners will be announced.
The 8th Katara Award for Reciting the Holy Qur’an aims to encourage distinguished talents in reciting the Holy Qur’an, discover and support new talents and introduce them to the world, honour distinguished and creative reciters, as well as motivate the young generation to adhere to their religion and understand their duties towards their Islamic faith and message. The first-place winner will receive a cash prize worth QR500,000, while the second-place winner will receive QR300,000, and the third-place winner will receive QR100,000.
