Latest news with #Jara
Khaleej Times
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Saudi musician Jara on making ‘halal rap': Don't compromise on your morals
It begins with an itch; a niggling need to express yourself. And once you give in, it only gets worse. Jara, who is known by one name, felt the incessant need to give words to her thoughts in her early 20s. Often, she did it to beats not realising that this form of expression had a name; without meaning to, she had already entered the rap arena. 'Since I was a kid, I would tell my parents, give me a word, then I would just start freestyling. Rap's just always been something that comes freely to me. It feels powerful, and that's kind of why I chose it to begin with,' she tells City Times. She has just moved to Dubai to further her career, calling it 'the place to be'. The 27-year-old musician, whose songs include the recently released Morals, is well versed with the subversive reputation of rap and using it to her advantage, to cement her place as one of the first Saudi women rappers, someone who isn't afraid to tell her truth. She knows she's a bit of a unicorn, being a female rapper at a time when globally only a few have made it big (think Nicki Minaj, Lil' Kim) and even fewer who will not sexualise their creations for viewership. 'I don't know if people are aware of this, but I'm very religious, so I kind of am different when it comes to the scene. I don't collaborate with men. I would like to try out a rap battle with a woman though, but I'm too nice to [diss people]… [maybe a] nice rap battles where you compliment each other. I would love to do that,' she laughs. Jara, or hoodjabi (a contraction of hoodie-wearing hijabi), spits fire in Arabic, English and Swedish. 'I'm gonna release a Swedish track soon…the plan is to also maybe learn another language and rap in another language,' she says. The Jeddah-born star is driven, she adds, not by fame or fortune but because it will give her yet another opportunity to 'deliver my message'. 'Every single song that I do has a purpose behind it. I've talked about racism, mental health, gender roles, and morals -- that's kind of why I do music. I feel like music is the best way to tell people a story, deliver a message, and actually do something powerful,' she says. As she talks over Zoom about the high and low notes of her life, she reveals another shocking statement: She may make music but does not listen to other's verses. 'I used to listen to music before it was a big part of my life. But since I started, maybe in the last years, I kind of started listening to music less and less because I felt like it was not impacting my journey with music, but influencing me. And I didn't really want any such influences, because sometimes when you listen to a lot of music, you start to sound like other rappers. I was really focused on trying to find my own sound,' she says. It always helps to have a sounding board if you are going to go into an unusual field, and for Jara that pillar of support has been her father. 'My dad's my biggest supporter; he goes with me for the music videos, to the studios, to everything. I wouldn't be doing it without him, because in a lot of these male-dominated spaces, I would have never have gone if I didn't have my security guard dad with me,' she says, adding that when she told him she wanted to rap, he just told her to give him an example of the kind of beats she'd be putting out. 'I was going through my playlist, I'm like, 'Everything has cuss words, everything is about inappropriate things. So I was like, okay, I want to change that. I want to like 'halalify' the rap scene,' she says, adding, 'You can be Muslim, religious and rap without having to cuss. You can still deliver a message.' He was convinced and after listening to her lyrics decided to help her achieve her dream. That's not to say she didn't face naysayers – she just dealt with it the way an artist would, by using it as fodder for her rhymes. 'I actually use the negativity in my favour. I have a song where I talk about these criticisms, and I flip it on them. When they say women should be in the kitchen, I say, 'yeah, I can, I can go in the kitchen, but I can also do this and this and this'. That's kind of what I like to do, take the negativity and make it into something positive.' For her recent track Morals, she says she tried to do some UK drill - a subgenre of drill music and road rap - 'something different for me'. 'I never want to be put in the box like just a rapper. I have always been experimenting with music; I sing, I rap, I'll do Afro piano, hip hop, cyphers; there's no specific one sound. As an artist, you're always experimenting,' she says. 'When writing, I often ask myself, 'What's going to make an impact to people? What is something I can say in my lyrics that will really resonate with people'.' After four-five years in the business, Jara has 30.2k followers on Instagram and says she is yet to find her tribe. 'That's also why I keep experimenting. I'm currently thinking of working on an EP or an album,' she says. But the one thing that may delay drops is that she doesn't like to release any songs without videos. 'I feel like, if you don't understand Arabic, you'll understand it [the sentiment] through the music video,' she said. While this might sound like an expensive treatment to a song, Jara is quick to dismiss the thought of larger-than-life budgets. 'A lot of my beats are bought from YouTube. I use Garage Band. I still have a USB mic. I don't have this huge setup. And I've made a good number of songs. Even my videos, most of them were zero budget. It was mainly me and a videographer and just telling them my vision and creative directing. I never needed a big production team or funding. I wanted to prove that you don't need a lot to make a music video, if you really push, you will be able to do it.' As for any other spitfires hoping to follow in her footsteps, she says: 'Never give up on your morals and standards. Don't feel like you need to sell out just to be successful, to get the fame, or the numbers. If you feel like your gut is telling you not to do something, then don't do it. Because I've been in a lot of situations where I got offered a lot of money and campaigns, but it was against what I stand for. So I didn't do it. I would say to women, never feel like you need to sell out just to be able to become successful. It might take a bit longer, but you will feel better at the end of the day knowing that you did it in the right way.' When you know your heart and mind are on the same page, there's no telling what you can achieve; for Jara, life is almost poetic and full of inspiration. Even if something wicked her way comes, she's ready to use music to cause magic and mayhem, to spit fire to the tune of her own beat.
Fox News
19-02-2025
- Science
- Fox News
Marine expert addresses viral anglerfish video that broke millions of hearts: 'A lot of hypotheses'
A deep-sea anglerfish that was recently spotted in shallow waters has captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands of social media users in recent days – and the photographer who spotted it recently opened up about the creature's fate. David Jara Boguñá, a marine photographer affiliated with Condrik Tenerife, a Spanish conservation organization, posted a video about the viral anglerfish on Feb. 13. The fish was documented swimming vertically in shallow waters less than a mile from Tenerife, the largest of Spain's Canary Islands, earlier this month. But the menacing-looking photos did not capture the fish's true size, Jara said – as the deep-sea creature was only about two inches long. "To start with the size….the small fish measured no more than six centimeters," he recalled. "She was more of a black fritter than a black monster." "You've asked me this a lot, but at no time did she attack us," Jara added. "I was more confused [by its presence] than anything else." "The second most important thing I want to clarify is that it was a female, since the males are no more than two, three centimeters long," Jara continued, adding that male anglerfish also lack bioluminescent antennae. The marine expert also discussed a few reasons why the fish, which could have lived as much as 6,000 feet below sea level, was brought to the surface in the first place. "There has been a lot of hypotheses about it," Jara acknowledged. "But the main ones would be that the animal was sick, the animal was swept away upstream or that it was fleeing from sort of predator." The photographer also said that the predatory anglerfish may have "ingested some fish, and that at the time of digestion, gases could have caused it to rise to the surface." In response to the millions of reactions that the video elicited, Jara said that he found commenters' references to climate change "pretentious" and also dismissed fears that the fish was a harbinger of an impending apocalypse. Jara also confirmed that the fish died soon after it was recorded. "Unfortunately, as many of you know, the [anglerfish] died and its body was donated to the Tenerife Museum of Nature and Archaeology," he noted. The expert's clarification came as millions of social media users shed tears over the fish's fate. Initially regarded as "nightmare fuel," the anglerfish has since inspired fan-art and poetry as humans tried to imagine what her journey from the deep-sea was like – with many believing that she purposely traveled to see light in her final moments. "can't talk right now. crying over a fish," one TikTok user wrote on a video viewed millions of times. "there's something deeply poetic about finding the light after a lifetime of darkness," a different user observed. "All I ever do is cry on this damn app," another wrote. "Someone said she was blind and couldn't see the light but probably felt the temp change in the water and knew," a fourth viewer said. "I cried so hard." On another TikTok video of the fish with 1.6 million likes, one user wrote she was personally inspired by the creature's journey. "Because of her and her will to find the light I enrolled myself in school to get my degree," the TikTok user wrote. "I will be finding my light like her." Other social media users were less inspired by the video and the emotional reactions it elicited. "I like to think she was journeying… but my biology background tells me she was dying and lost control of her buoyancy," a commenter wrote. "This isn't a Pixar movie," another said. "She was dying. Stop romanticizing it." It is rare for fish who live so deep in the ocean to be seen in shallow waters alive. Last year, a dead anglerfish washed up on an Oregon beach for the first time in recorded history.
Express Tribune
16-02-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
WATCH: Rare black seadevil fish appears on ocean surface
A team of researchers in the Canary Islands has captured rare footage of a black seadevil anglerfish, a deep-sea species, swimming near the ocean's surface—a sight that has been recorded only once before. The black seadevil (Melanocetus johnsonii), known for its bioluminescent lure and fearsome appearance, typically inhabits the ocean's depths, between 650 and 6,500 feet. The fish was filmed by wildlife photographer David Jara aboard the vessel Glaucus, during a rare encounter that lasted for about an hour. 'It was like a dream come true,' said Jara, a marine wildlife photographer with the NGO Condrik Tenerife. 'I had seen these creatures in books as a child, and I never thought I would actually capture one on film.' The anglerfish, which is about six inches long, was filmed swimming actively, despite being a species typically adapted to extreme pressures and known for being ambush predators that remain relatively stationary in deep water. This unexpected behaviour astonished experts, who were excited by the rarity of the sighting. 'When I first saw the video, I honestly didn't believe what I was seeing,' said Kory Evans, a fish biologist at Rice University. 'I thought it was A.I.' Bruce Robison, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, added that such sightings are extremely rare. He was the one who captured the only previous footage of a living black seadevil in Monterey Bay in 2014, at a depth of 1,900 feet. The exact reason why the black seadevil ventured to the surface remains unclear, but scientists believe it may have been due to changes in water temperature, pressure, or a prey-driven movement. Despite their intimidating looks, Evans notes that black seadevils are 'mostly soft and squishy,' highlighting their surprising contrast to their fearsome image. This sighting is a significant moment for marine biology, providing further insight into one of the ocean's most mysterious creatures.
National Geographic
11-02-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
Scientists capture extremely rare footage of a black seadevil
On January 26, a team of researchers in the Canary Islands saw something no one on Earth has documented before—a black seadevil anglerfish slowly weaving its way to the ocean's surface. 0:09 'It was like a dream come true,' says David Jara Bogunyà, a marine wildlife photographer with the NGO Condrik Tenerife. 'When I was a kid, I had a book with some deep-sea creatures, and I loved the illustrations. They were crazy to me. The animals didn't look real.' And yet, for about an hour, Jara and his colleagues aboard the vessel Glaucus swam with and photographed the black seadevil—a species that typically inhabits the ocean column at inky depths between 650 and 6,500 feet.
