Watch: Alicia Keys serenades students and staff at a girls' school in Saudi Arabia

The singer sang her hit ‘Fallin’ in front of an ecstatic audience

Singer Alicia Keys speaks to the crowd before introducing Senator from California and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris during a drive-in campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona on October 28, 2020. (Photo by ARIANA DREHSLER / AFP)
Saeed Saeed
Apr 11, 2021
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RnB artist Alicia Keys gave an impromptu performance to students and staff at Madrasat AdDeera in Al Ula.

In a video posted to Instagram on Friday by Saudi Arabia's Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah, the Grammy Award-winning singer performs her signature 2001 hit Fallin' in front of students and staff at a girls' school in the historical desert location.

While it’s unknown when the performance actually took place, a photo doing the rounds on social media suggests Keys has recently been in the kingdom.

Twitter user @dcantiheroes posted a screenshot image on Friday taken from Hassan Ghoneim's Instagram Stories that showed the Saudi media personality standing beside a masked Keys.

If the singer was, in fact in the kingdom, then it marks another triumph for Al Ula after Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli performed was there for an intimate concert within the walls of Hegra, the Unesco World Heritage Site formerly known as Madain Saleh, on Thursday.

It also wouldn't be the Girl on Fire hitmaker's first time in Saudi Arabia.

Keys was one of the major headliners of 2019's Riyadh Season, a two-month long entertainment festival which also saw Bruno Mars, Pitbull and John Legend perform concerts across the Saudi Arabian capital.

Her husband and music producer Swizz Beatz, real name Kasseem Dean, has his own connections with Saudi Arabia.

In October 2020, he became the first American to own a Saudi camel team called Kassem Abu Nasser.

In typical swaggering style, he also teamed up with Los Angeles streetwear brand Chinatown Market to launch the team’s official merchandise, featuring the words “Saudi Bronx 2020”, which he was seen wearing alongside his wife and their two children in an Instagram picture.

An official team song called The Biggest Shela was also released with hip-hop-Khaleeji fusion and features American-Palestinian hip-hop star DJ Khaled.

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