Ammon News - UAE (Abu Dhabi) -As the first live episode of the biggest Nabati poetry competition “Million’s Poet” broadcast live last Wednesday on Abu Dhabi TV; the exciting journey to the top poetry title and the 5 millions UAE dirham prize has started in a hot competition between the best 48 poets in the region.

From Al Raha Beach Theater in Abu Dhabi and in a marvelous decorated stage inspired by Al Jahili Fort in Al Ain, the first phase of the fourth season of the competition organized and sponsored by Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) has started by testing the first 8 poets before the jury panel and audience at the theater.

After a hot competition between poets: Ebraheam Al Belawi from Sudia Arabia, Ahmed Al Dhabaei from UAE, Thani Al Dhahmashi from Sudia Arabia, Hameid Al Muradi from Yemen, Roba Al Douekat from Jourdan, Satam Bin Batla from Saudia Arabia, Abdula Al Mutari from Kuwait and Ali Al Muri from Qatar, only two poets were able to make it to the second phase.

Each contester delivered a poem before the specialized jury panel consists of Sultan Al Amimi, Director of Poetry Academy in ADACH, Dr Ghassan Al Hassan the researcher in Nabati poetry and the poet Hamad Al Saeed.

Contester’s poems were powerful and some showed a high ability to renew the traditional forms of Nabati poetry, the traditional dialect poetry famous in Arabia since about 1000 years ago, that most of them were given high percentage by the theater audience; none of them gained less than 50 percent.

At the end the jury chooses two best poets to participate in the second phase of the competition who are: Satam Bin Batla and Ali Al Muri, while one of the other six contesters will participate in the second phase by public voting through SMS and website voting which will be reveled next episode coming Wednesday.

The entertainment of the wide watched TV program was with the Jordanian singer Omar Abdullat who singed a special song on the beauty of Abu Dhabi from a poem written by Jordanian poet Yasser Al Bashabsh. Also Al Badia popular band performed a folklore dance on the stage.

In a new step to give audience a deep understanding for the beauty of Nabati poem the program hosts two famous poets to critic the performance of the contesters from the analyses studious where poets Salim Al Ma’ashani and Manea Bin Shalhat criticized each contester and the jury panel too.

Global Arab Network