Akon joins Arab artists for charity single

A late addition, but Emirati social entrepreneur Badr Jafar’s efforts have finally paid off as Grammy-nominated singer-producer Akon has joined 24 Arab superstars from 16 nations across the Middle East and North Africa on the charity single “Tomorrow-Bokra”.

The re-adaptation of Quincy Jones’ Grammy-winning single, “Tomorrow (A Better You, A Better Me)” also sees the legendary music producer collaborating with Jafar to jointly produce the charity project.

The Senegalese-American R&B artist’s smooth vocals have graced several Billboard Top 100 songs with chart-toppers including the breakout hit “Lonely”, which sampled Bobby Vinton’s classic 60’s tune, and the recent numbers for Shah Rukh Khan’s Bollywood blockbuster “Ra.One”.

Akon has performed guest vocals with a number of leading international artists including the late Michael Jackson, Eminem, Whitney Houston and R.Kelly. The “Tomorrow-Bokra” single will be the biggest multi-cultural collaborative work Akon will have ever worked on.

Jones and Red One are producing the song, while Malek Akkad (son of Moustafa Al Akkad the Director of ‘The Message’), will be directing the music video and documentary film.

Artists featured on the song Tomorrow-Bokrasong include legendary Lebanese singer Majida El Roumi who wrote the Arabiclyrics, Kadim Al Sahir who worked on the music adaptation, Marwan Khoury(Lebanon), Sherine Abdel Wahab, Tamer Hosny (Egypt), Saber Rebai, Latifa(Tunisia), Fayez Al Saeed (UAE) and many more.

All proceeds raised from the charity project will finance educational programmes in music, arts and culture forchildren across the region, in association with a series of organisations including the United Nations World Food Programme.

The song will premiere live around the world via global TV simulcast on November 11, with MBC and on-line with YouTube-Google at an exclusive VIP event at the One & Only The Palm, Dubai. 

The date was chosen to reflect a sense ofoneness between all Arab countries and to serve as a beacon of hope for the future of the Middle East and North Africa region at a crucial time in its history.

CNN is the Global Media Partner and Sony Music is the Record Label Partner.

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