Guinness World Records recorded a new achievement in the name of the artist Amr Diab, after he topped the “Billboard Arab” list of the 100 best artists for the largest number of 69 weeks.
This honor represents the second Guinness title in Amr Diab’s career, and is added to an exceptional artistic record that spanned more than four decades, during which he maintained his presence at the forefront of the Arab music scene, and brought his works to successive generations.
Amr Diab stressed that this achievement is primarily due to his fans, indicating that every work he presents always aims to make them happy, and that their love and support constitute the primary motivation behind his continuity.
He added: “I am always keen for my music to develop and diversify with my audience, and I am interested with every new work to know how it receives and interacts with it,” continuing: “My audience and their satisfaction with what I present are the first and most important achievement for me.”
Juhaina Khalidiya, Executive Editor-in-Chief of Billboard Arabia, said: “Today we celebrate an Arab and international artist who created his own formula for success. He not only kept up with the times, but preceded them in many milestones, and the title is an extension of a career that created a large part of our musical memory,” expressing their pride that “this historic achievement was achieved on our lists that document the success of Arabic music.”
The new title is added to Amr Diab's record-breaking record, and confirms the continuity of his influence in the Arab music scene, and his ability to maintain his position with every new stage of his artistic career.
Throughout his career, Amr Diab presented a collection of songs that achieved widespread public success and accompanied successive generations, most notably “Nour El Ain,” which was released nearly three decades ago and continues to enjoy Arab and international spread, passing through works such as “Tamli Maak” and “Qamarain,” arriving at his recent successes, including “Baba,” “Kidnafoni,” and “Lula Al-Banat.” This expansion reflects his ability to combine an established musical archive with new works that maintain his presence in the country. The forefront of the scene.
“Billboard Arabia” is issued by the Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG), the largest integrated media group in the Middle East and North Africa region, in partnership with Billboard International, the most influential media brand in the world of music in the world. “Billboard Arabia” is a platform specialized in Arab music and culture, highlighting Arab artists, their works and stories, and enhancing its presence regionally and globally.
Guinness is the official global reference for documenting and verifying records and celebrating exceptional achievements from around the world.
Carrying barbecue tongs and sausages, thousands of hungry South Africans, determined to break a world record, gathered Thursday, on a national holiday, to participate in an attempt to record the largest number of people grilling food at the same time.
The number that participants seek to exceed is 2,220 people, and was recorded in the Japanese city of Ishigaki in 2023.
The Associated Press reported that the South Africans, who failed in a similar attempt last year, flocked to a sports stadium in the capital, Pretoria, and took their positions around about 500 barbecue stations. Organizers said they expect about 3,000 people to participate.
According to the strict rules explained by a Guinness World Records judge who supervised the attempt, all participants must continue grilling at the same time for a period of no less than 5 minutes in order to be counted within the record.
“If anyone leaves, they will be disqualified from the attempt,” said judge Polina Sabinska, who wore a blue jacket and tie and carried a notepad as she watched the sausages and burgers being grilled.
Cooking meat outdoors over wood, charcoal or gas fires is a popular tradition among South Africans, as is the case in the United States, Australia and other places around the world.
This tradition is known in South Africa as “Brai”, and one of its most famous foods is the thick, rolled sausages, known as “Buriwars”. That is, “farmers’ sausage.” But participants also grilled burgers, steaks and other cuts in an attempt to break the record.
The group barbecue took place on “Heritage Day,” a national holiday during which South Africans, with their racial and cultural diversity, are encouraged to highlight and celebrate their heritage.
This day has become known unofficially as “Bray Day,” as the love of barbecue brings people together across the country, and many South Africans celebrate it by holding similar parties.
Participant Alex Coetzee said that he also participated in the attempt to break the record in 2025, when South Africa failed to achieve it. Due to a large number of participants leaving their positions around the grills.
“Things will be better this time,” added Coetzee, who wore a T-shirt in the colors of the South African flag. We will actually break the world record. “The South Africans will be the record holders, and that is the most important thing.”
But has this year's attempt matured as it should have, or has it gone up in smoke?
Guinness judge Sabinska kept the country on edge, saying she and other officials were still reviewing the evidence, and a final decision on whether South Africa broke the world record for the largest barbecue may not come until Friday.
Former US President Barack Obama reflected on his experience with fatherhood, speaking about the differences he noticed in his relationship with his two daughters, and noting that his family life might have been different if he had had a son. In a frank talk about the complex relationship between parents and children, Obama also recalled an aspect of his relationship with his grandfather, which left a deep impact on his view of fatherhood and care.
Obama's speech came during his discussion of the topic of fatherhood with actor Tom Hanks, in the first episode of his new podcast program, “A Great Book with Barack Obama,” in which he reviews a number of books that had an important impact on his life.
The former president (65 years old) discussed the experience of raising his two daughters, Malia (28 years old) and Sasha (25 years old), with his wife, Michelle Obama. According to the Independent newspaper, his program devotes space to discussing books and the ideas and personal experiences they raise for Obama and his guests.
Hanks was the first guest on the program, as he discussed with Obama the novel “Gilead” by Marilyn Robinson, a novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, and deals with the themes of death, empathy, and the complex relationship between parents and children.
In the episode that aired Thursday, the two men discussed a passage from the novel in which Robinson reflects on how people can love each other deeply, despite their sometimes inability to understand each other. “A man may know his father, or his son,” Robinson wrote, “and yet there may remain between them nothing but loyalty, love, and mutual misunderstanding.”
Commenting on this quote, Obama began his speech by saying: “I do not have a son.”
Then he said to Hanks: “You know my daughters.” "I've always said, and I can't say for sure, but I think that raising a son would have been more difficult for me than raising a daughter."
Obama, who served as US President from 2009 to 2017, explained that there is, in his opinion, “some way to bridge that gap in understanding” with girls. He added that his relationship with his two daughters does not include the same kind of struggle for influence, or what he described as the “den-protecting instinct” that may appear, according to his experience, in the relationship between fathers and their male children.
Obama then moved on to talk about his personal experience with the men who played fatherly roles in his life, recalling his relationship with his grandfather, saying: “I did not know my father personally, but I knew my grandfather. He was a complex character. “I loved him, but I didn’t understand him, and he didn’t understand me either.”
He added: “There are fond feelings and wonderful memories, but I had, on some fundamental level, a feeling of wondering: Who is this man?”
Obama's parents divorced when he was two years old, and he was raised by his mother, Anne, and his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madeleine Dunham, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Obama pointed out that his relationship with his grandfather turned over time into what he described as a “practical lesson” in the things that should be avoided when a person assumes the role of caregiver.
