MTV Arabia launches today

Right here.

Funny: not a peep about it in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times or Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Good thing I get the Financial Times (FT), else I'd be out of the loop.

Here's today's FT story by Simeon Kerr and Peter Aspden.

MTV Arabia beams 'bling' to Gulf

MTV Arabia starts beaming its diet of music and youth-oriented programming across the Middle East today to a potential audience of 190m young Arabs.

The first Arabic youth lifestyle channel will air locally produced programmes, as well as international imports such as Pimp My Ride and Cribs , which should prove popular in the car and property-obsessed Gulf.

Graced by international soul star Akon and rapper-turned-actor Ludacris, the launch party took place in the suitably "bling" emirate of Dubai, where a tolerance for the lifestyles of a large non-Muslim expatriate population sits uncomfortably amid the conservative Gulf.

Bill Roedy, vice-chairman of MTV Networks, said the launch of MTV's 60th channel was a chance to correct misconceptions of the region: "This part of the world has been associated with stresses and tensions . . . the one thing music can do is act as a unifying cultural force across regions."

MTV's partner in the venture, Dubai-based Arab Media Group, says the channel's scope will go beyond entertainment to promote social causes. "We are going to encourage education and look for solutions to problems such as unemployment. These are all causes on our agenda," said Abdulatif al-Sayegh, chief executive.

Glimpses of MTV Arabia's output included the channel's famous promotional "idents" with a twist of regional humour, along with a talent show, Hiphopna , in which Saudi rapper Qusai and Palestinian-born producer Fred Wreck seek new rappers from the streets of the Arab world.

An underground hip-hop scene is spreading across the region, inspired by the strong tradition of lyrical poetry in the Gulf and the genre's association with street culture and political struggle in the Middle East's more troubled locales.

Mr Roedy says he hopes the channel will launch a regional artist on to the global stage. The last big Arab crossover was Algerian raï music, the blend of classical Arab music and western rock that gave north African youth a voice.

Warming up for the international stars were Desert Heat, a Dubai-based rap duo who say hip-hop is becoming the most popular genre among their peers.

Salem and Abdullah Dahman say it was hard for them to emerge in Dubai, where the music scene is in its infancy. While they have more respectable day jobs, the brothers hope MTV Arabia will air an album they are recording.

"Hip-hop is a movement, a form of expression that has long been denied the youth of the Arab world," said Salem, aka Illmiyah, or "knowledge".

Rather than the "booty" and "bling" fixation of American rap music, however, their lyrics reflect topics such as the importance of education.

MTV Arabia aims to bridge cultural divides, but the launch party also managed to prise open some of the social divides within Middle Eastern society.

At the close of his set, Hollywood star Ludacris professed his love for Dubai's "buildings, food and women".

In a briefing after the party, however, the actor was taken to task by a female journalist from a Saudi newspaper who objected to his showboating "love" for Dubai's women.

Mr Sayegh's company is owned by Dubai's ruler and plans four more TV stations over the next year.