Nawal Al Zoughbi in Jarrash 2005

Prominent Lebanese singer Nawal Al Zoughbi will be taking part in this year’s annual Jarrash Summer Festival in Jordan, after being absent from the festival since 1997. The production company, Rotana has bought the rights to exclusively air and organize this year’s festival.

It is not clear whether Nawalparticipation in the festival is connected to her recent negotiations with Rotana to determine the possibility of a new contract. Nawal recently terminated her contract with Alam El Phan Production Company.

Rotana has a reputation for insisting that its members perform in festivals for which it buys rights to around the Arab world, although Egyptian singer Shireen Abdul Wahab, who is not a member of Rotana, performed in the Hello February Festival in Kuwait, organized by Rotana.

Nawal recently returned from a successful performance in Kuwait, and plans on heading to Cairo to resume recording the songs for her upcoming album. The album features a number of songs sung in the Egyptian dialect, and the singer has yet to decide on those that will be sung in the Lebanese dialect.

The singer announced that she will release a new single in the coming month, and the music video will be filmed under the direction of Nadine Libky from Lebanon.

Nawal confirmed that since she ended her contract with Alam Al-Fan she has not come to an agreement with a new production company. The singer is currently holding negotiations with Rotana, but has not made any commitments thus far due to conditions of exclusivity, amongst others she does not accept. 

Nawal stressed that if she does not find a suitable company she will begin to produce her own music and create a new production company named Tia Production after her daughter. The singer refuses to abide by the rules of exclusivity that most companies demand, despite the fact that she previously signed a contract with the Lebanese Broadcasting Company that states any clip she produces must be aired solely on their channel for the first month.