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National Day competition discovers new director for ‘Ya Khalifatna’ a new song for National Day 2012

A new song for National Day 2012 ‘Ya Khalifatna’ is to be released today, Thursday, 22nd November, featuring a music video by young, aspiring director Abdulaziz Ahmad, the winner of a competition by twofour54 creative lab to discover new Emirati talent. The music project has been a collaboration between renowned Emirati poet Arif Al Khaja and well-known music producer, singer and composer Fayez Al Saeed who worked with Abdulaziz and other young creative talent aspiring to expand their experience in music production.

Abdulaziz’s winning idea for the music video tells the story of the development of the UAE, showing a small village where good hearted people are leading a difficult life some 50 years ago. Featuring seven characters, each with a different job, representing the seven Emirates, the village flourishes once the characters unite and help each other. The union of the Emirates is celebrated as seven become one.

Talking about his idea for the music video, Abdulaziz explained: “I wanted the story to reflect the unity and interdependence of the UAE. It has been a great experience to direct the video and seeing my story come to life in the music video for ‘Ya Khalifatna’ is fantastic. I hope this opportunity will help develop my career as a director.”

To create the lyrics for ‘Ya Khalifatna’, Arif Al Khaja combined the original lyrics of ‘Zanaha Zayed’ with the lyrics of last year’s National Day song ‘Amrek Al Sami’, which he also wrote. Reflecting the music video, the lyrics tell the story of the UAE. In particular, the lyrics tell how the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan beautified the nation and how His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, is following the same path. These lyrics were set to music composed by Fayez Al Saeed.

‘Ya Khalifatna’ will be played across UAE’s national media channels including TV, radio and online and a CD will be inserted into national newspapers on Tuesday 27th November. Everyone will be able to download ‘Ya Khalifatna’ from Friday 23rd November onwards on: www.twofour54.com/download and in the run up to the national celebrations on 2nd December 2012, ‘Ya Khalifatna’ will be played at numerous events and venues celebrating National Day.

twofour54 creative lab commissioned ‘Ya Khalifatna’ as part of its aim to discover and develop grass-roots talent through content creation. Twelve twofour54 creative lab community members were involved across casting, directing, production management, photography and production of behind-the-scenes-content, allowing them to gain hands on experience in music video production.

The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA) was a partner in the project. Faisal Al Sheikh, Events Manager, TCA Abu Dhabi said: “National Day is a wonderful celebration and we hope everyone enjoys ‘Ya Khalifatna’ as much as we have enjoyed being involved in the project. We were drawn into this project to supports its aim of developing young Emirati creative talent.”

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