Saudi Arabia asks Hans Zimmer to rework the national anthem | Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has asked the Oscar -winning composer Hans Zimmer to work on a new version of its national anthem, said a senior official, while the kingdom intensifies its transformation of its image.

Zimmer, whose film music includes the Lion King, Dune and Black Knight of 1994 trilogy, accepted the “main lines” of the project, said the president of the general entertainment authority, Turki Alashikh.

“We have discussed many future projects a lot which, I hope, will be born soon … including the reorganization of the Saudi national anthem with different instruments,” posted Alashikh on X.

Zimmer also spoke of a Saudi -inspired musical entitled Arabia, a “very big concert” and the soundtrack of the Battle of Yarmuk, a next film, said Alashikh.

“We have agreed on the main lines of all these projects and I hope that we will reach a final agreement about them,” he said.

The Saudi hymn, Aash al-Malik (long live the king), was written in 1947 by the Egyptian composer Abdul Rahman al-Khateeb at the request of King Abdulaziz, according to Nationalanthems.info.

The current version is in the “Arab fanfare” style at that time, the website indicates.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading world exporter of oil and home for the holy places of Islam, continues an ambitious restructuring by trying to diversify its economy by moving away from crude oil.

After having reopened the cinemas, allowed women to drive and admitted the first non -Muslim tourists in 2018, the makeover included several large -scale projects such as vacation centers and Neom, a futuristic city in the desert costing 500 billion dollars .

Alashikh has participated in a number of cultural and sports promotions, including truck boxing and a list of concerts from foreign musicians.

Activists have said that the efforts of the Saudi authorities to improve their image were an attempt to ignore the unchanged hard policies, in particular the limited rights of women, restrictions on freedom of expression and some of the most execution figures raised to the world.