Raja Hasan will provide simultaneous sign language translation during Mohammed Abdo's concert in Abu Dhabi. Khushnum Bhandari / The National
Raja Hasan will provide simultaneous sign language translation during Mohammed Abdo's concert in Abu Dhabi. Khushnum Bhandari / The National
Raja Hasan will provide simultaneous sign language translation during Mohammed Abdo's concert in Abu Dhabi. Khushnum Bhandari / The National
Raja Hasan will provide simultaneous sign language translation during Mohammed Abdo's concert in Abu Dhabi. Khushnum Bhandari / The National

How to sing in sign language: meet the interpreter joining Mohammed Abdu on stage


Saeed Saeed
  • English
  • Arabic

How do you interpret some of Arabic popular music’s most dense and poetic lyrics into sign language?

According to Raja Hasan, you need to put your body into it.

In what could be a UAE first, the Jordanian interpreter will share the stage with Mohammed Abdu during his concert at Etihad Arena on Saturday, as he translates the revered Saudi singer’s songs to audience members who are hearing impaired.

There are no UAE statistics about the prevalence of deafness and hearing disabilities. According to the World Health Organisation, more than five per cent of the world’s population — about 430 million — suffer from debilitating hearing loss.

Speaking to The National before the show, organised by UAE company X Culture Events, Hasan reveals he received the set list in advance from Abdu’s team a fortnight ago and has been practising at home ever since.

“I also went into a deep dive of Abdu’s songs, in general, because it is not only enough to translate the lyrics literally,” he says. “But I also have to really channel the deep emotions he expresses in many of his songs.

“Abdu’s work is very deep and really melancholy. To capture that in sign language requires not just the movement of my hands, but different parts of my body — from my facial reactions to the shoulders — to really express the emotions of the lyrics.”

A way of expression

Hasan welcomes the challenge as he is a seasoned hand.

Currently working independently, he was a former sign language interpreter for Abu Dhabi TV’s current affair show Oloum Al Dar, completing a 15-year stint in January.

After leaving, he took freelance jobs at business and government events, including being part of the team interpreting the near nightly Covid-19 updates by the UAE authorities in the first months of the pandemic in 2020.

“It was really then I felt what myself and colleagues did really resonated with society,” he says. “I would get stopped sometimes in the street, here in Abu Dhabi, and people would thank me and encourage me to keep going.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy what I do. But I never forget there are a group of people solely dependent on people like me to give them the right information, it is this responsibility that pushes me forward.”

Hasan's interest in sign language dates back nearly 20 years.

“None of my family members are hearing impaired, so I entered this field out of fascination and this feeling of wanting to help and contribute in some way,” he says.

“So I studied the field in the University of Jordan where we would also use our skills to help deaf students. It was a very beautiful experience.”

It also remains a challenging endeavour with sign language following a set principles that doesn’t always mesh with the spoken word.

Some of these differences will become apparent when Hasan takes the stage on Saturday.

“Certain idioms can be tricky as not everything translates, especially some of the way we say things in Arabic, which is very descriptive,” he says.

“So if I translate the phrase ‘I will come to you like a plane,’ meaning, 'I will see you soon’, it doesn’t make sense. So in certain situations I will need to make it more literal and say that ‘I am on my way’ or ‘I will be there shortly’.”

That doesn’t mean sign language is dry, Hasan says.

“Like any language, the more skilled you are the more expressive you can be,” he says. “While certain sayings can be difficult, sign language is capable of capturing a lot of things.

“So when I translate the question whether someone wants a Pepsi or Coke, I use the movement similar to opening a soft drink can.”

Mohammed Abdu performs at the newly built super dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — in pictures

A human rights issue

Hasan says he does not know what proportion of audience require his services at the Abdu concert.

Then again, that’s beside the point.

“The fact that I am there on stage is important because it sends a message that everyone should feel included and for this, I have to state my gratitude to concert organisers X Culture Events for coming up with the idea” he says.

“Maybe at first people will find it strange that I am there on stage the whole time, but after a few songs I think they will welcome the idea of what I am doing.”

Hasan says he is confident that he and his colleagues will become a permanent feature of the UAE entertainment scene.

“I am positive it will be mandatory for some kind of interpretation to be made available at all UAE live events,” he says. “At the end of the day, we are not talking here about entertaining people. This is a human rights issue and that means anyone shouldn’t feel like they are shut out of any part of society.”

When more concert promoters, hopefully, see the value of what he provides, Hasan is ready for the next big gig.

“You know, with Mohammed Abdu I am starting with probably one of the hardest Arabic concerts to translate,” he says. “After this, doing any other Arabic pop concert should be relatively easier.”

Mohammed Abdu performs at Etihad Arena, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, on June 25. Doors open at 6.30pm; tickets starting at D788 are available at etihadarena.ae. You can also watch a live stream of the concert for Dh99 on Basita.live

10 concerts and events coming to Abu Dhabi — in pictures

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

From Conquest to Deportation

Jeronim Perovic, Hurst

Europe’s rearming plan
  • Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
  • Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
  • Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
  • Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
  • Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

While you're here
BMW M5 specs

Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor

Power: 727hp

Torque: 1,000Nm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km

On sale: Now

Price: From Dh650,000

INDIA SQUAD

Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Biog

Age: 50

Known as the UAE’s strongest man

Favourite dish: “Everything and sea food”

Hobbies: Drawing, basketball and poetry

Favourite car: Any classic car

Favourite superhero: The Hulk original

Updated: June 28, 2022, 10:48 AM`