Saudi Arabia asks German composer Hans Zimmer to 'rearrange' its national anthem

Composer Hans Zimmer has accepted the project of “rearranging” the national anthem of Saudi Arabia. He also discussed the creation of a musical of Saudi origin and the soundtrack of a new Saudi film.

Saudi Arabia has asked German composer Hans Zimmer, winner of two Oscars for best film music, to “rearrange” its national anthem, said a senior official of the conservative kingdom. Hans Zimmer, whose film scores include The Lion King (1994), the trilogy Dark Knight et Dune (2021), accepted the “main lines” of the project, declared on X the president of the General Authority for Entertainment, Turki Al-Sheikh.

“We have looked at many future projects which I hope will see the light of day soon (…), including the rearrangement of the Saudi national anthem with different instruments”added Turki Al-Sheikh at the origin of several Saudi initiatives.

Hans Zimmer also discussed a Saudi-inspired musical called Arabiaof a “very big concert” and the soundtrack of The Battle of Yarmouka new Saudi film to be released, he added.

“We have agreed on the broad outlines of all these projects and I hope that we will reach a final agreement”according to him.

The Saudi anthem Also Al-Malik (Long live the king) was written in 1947 by the Egyptian composer Abdel Rahman Al-Khatib, at the request of King Abdel Aziz, founder of the kingdom, according to the nationalanthems.info website. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and home to Islam's holiest sites, is pursuing an ambitious program of reforms and diversification of its economy.

After reopening cinemas, allowing women to drive and admitting the first non-Muslim tourists in 2018, the transformation shifted into high gear with a series of mega projects, including beach resorts and Neom, a futuristic desert city, the cost of which is estimated at 500 billion dollars. Human rights defenders say that through these modernization projects, the kingdom is trying to hide certain realities such as the limited rights of women and the execution rate of death row inmates among the highest in the world.