Concerts have long been an underground affair in Saudi Arabia, where official observance to the severe Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam puts music in difficult legal territory.
Recently 8,000 men sang along to epic love songs in Jeddah as the kingdom held its first large-scale concert in nearly seven years.
It was a grand homecoming for Saudi superstar Mohammed Abdo, popularly known as the “Artist of the Arabs,” who has performed to packed houses abroad for over a decade often mostly Saudis but could not appear on stage at home.
Abdo was backed by a 60-man Egyptian orchestra and appeared with two other popular singers: Rabeh Sager, a Saudi, and Majid Al-Muhandis, an Iraqi who also holds Saudi citizenship.
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