International sporting and cultural events are jostling at the end of the year in Saudi Arabia's official calendar.
After hosting the very first Grand Prix in the history of the country in early December in Jeddah (west), the Wahhabi kingdom hailed, on Monday, December 20, the success of the new edition of its gigantic music festival MDLBeast Soundstorm, the largest in the Middle East, organized near Riyadh.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of cases of which are on the rise, the Saudi authorities are pleased that a record number of participants has been reached with more than 732,000 spectators welcomed during the four days of the event which has ended Sunday.
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More than 200 artists, Arab and international, including David Guetta and DJ Snake, performed in front of a mixed audience during this event, which was greeted by the French Ambassador, Ludovic Pouille.
These details are not trivial in a rigorous country which remains the world's leading destination for religious tourism for people of the Muslim faith.
One of the most visible signs of the opening of the kingdom
Until a few years ago, music, like all forms of entertainment generally, was banned by officers of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, also known as "muttawa". In August 2017, a 14-year-old teenager was arrested for "disturbing public order" after dancing the macarena in a street in Jeddah.
"By focusing on entertainment, Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman, who has for several years locked Saudi political space and wiped out any protest at the level of the conservatives, offers a breath of fresh air to the youth of his country, underlines Karim Sader, consultant specializing in Gulf countries, interviewed by France 24. Completely connected to globalization and thirsty for a certain form of openness, this youth was used to living in hiding and with a certain frustration ".
The success of the MDLBeast Soundstorm festival is one of the most visible signs of the ongoing cultural upheavals in Saudi Arabia, initiated by the Crown Prince also known as MBS.
In 2018, the latter ordered the opening of cinemas, banned for 35 years in the kingdom, before giving the green light, via the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), at the launch of the largest festival of music, in 2019.
📸 Happy to have attended the #MDLBeast Festival at #Riyad, the largest gathering of artists & DJs in the world.
Proud to see @davidguetta @djsnake @AcidArab @Malaamusic & other French artists participating for 4 days in this exceptional event! #FranceKSA 🇫🇷💙🇸🇦🎶🔥 pic.twitter.com/XFCEXFKK2c
- Ludovic Pouille (@ludovic_pouille) December 18, 2021
So many initiatives that are part of the diversification plan for an economy too dependent on oil, entitled "Vision 2030" and wanted by the Crown Prince.
The latter intends to develop, among others, the sectors of non-religious tourism and the leisure industry, then untapped, in order to reduce the country's dependence on black gold.
It is in this sense that the GEA was created in May 2016, with the mission of recovering, within 15 years, the twenty billion euros that the Saudis spend each year abroad, and especially in neighboring Gulf countries, for their leisure.
NGOs denounce the instrumentalisation of culture
However, human rights NGOs denounce an instrumentalisation of culture and entertainment intended to divert attention from violations, specifically the repression against opponents and activists.
“The world music superstars who will perform at the next MDLBeast Soundstorm festival in Saudi Arabia should defend human rights or not participate, protested the NGO Human Rights Watch, on the eve of the festival. producing at the event, which is sponsored by the Saudi government, and the influencers promoting it, should distance themselves from the country's attempts to whitewash its horrific rights record. "
The Saudi government is accused of having assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi assassinated in 2018 in the consulate of his country, in Istanbul.
On February 26, a US intelligence report pointed to Mohammed bin Salman's responsibility for the journalist's assassination, leading to the prince's international quarantine by the Biden administration.
"Western services may well know that the crown prince is far from being a stranger to the horrific affair of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, given the verticality of power he has established in Saudi Arabia, and yet the Here is back in the news thanks to realpolitik which ends up taking precedence, as illustrated recently by the visit of Emmanuel Macron who offered him a window of oxygen ".
In early December, the French president met Mohammed Ben Salman in Jeddah, in one of the first visits for a Western leader since the Khashoggi affair.
Other NGOs see a certain naivety on the part of the Saudi Crown Prince to believe that the organization of a music festival and the generous remuneration of the artists and influencers who promote it can polish his image.
"MBS is not naive, he persists in his strategy of forced modernization of the kingdom, regardless of the critics, because finally we see that little by little, the balls he drags at his feet seem less and less heavy , notes Karim Sader. Obviously, he does not shine as he would like and it will take a lot for him to forget his image as an impulsive and brutal leader, but he is succeeding in gradually returning to the international scene ".
Unsuccessful boycott calls
Karim Sader recalls that criticism from NGOs did not prevent hundreds of artists from coming to the last MDLBeast Soundstorm festival.
"Calls to boycott events in Saudi Arabia are not bearing fruit, as recently demonstrated by the arrival of singer Justin Bieber in the kingdom, on the sidelines of the first Formula 1 Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia."
The Canadian artist has, in fact, resisted criticism on social networks and the attempt by Jamal Khashoggi's fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, to dissuade him from going there.
Also at the beginning of December, the first Red Sea Festival welcomed, on its red carpet, the French actors Vincent and Catherine Deneuve, as well as the director Gaspar Noé and the former Minister of Culture and current president of the Institut du Monde. Arab, Jack Lang.
"Finally, despite criticism from human rights defenders, the prince continues his policy and tries to kill two birds with one stone, at the same time winking at the West by opening the country to its culture, and another to the youth of its country, where 60% of the population is under 30, showing itself as modern and attentive to its needs ", concludes Karim Sader.
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