Freshest news from the region and beyond, straight to your screens.
١. TUL8TE Rings in 2026 with Winter-Bruised Anthem “Seneen”
Cairo’s masked pop enigma TUL8TE is back, kicking off 2026 with “Seneen,” a heartbreak-laced winter anthem released on MDLBEAST Records. Following the unstoppable success of October’s “El Hob Gany” — 150M+ streams and chart-topping in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and MENA — “Seneen” sees TUL8TE dive deep into introspection, blending calm, minimal production with raw, universal lyrics that trace love, loss, and laughter over the years. His signature genre-melting style — psychedelic rock, R&B, indie, and Arabic-infused melodies — carries the emotional weight with intimate vocal effects and organic studio claps, creating a haunting yet lived-in feel. Already a global breakout, with viral hits like “Habibi Leh” and a 300M+ streaming album “Narein,” TUL8TE continues to redefine Arabic pop on the world stage, while teasing a new era of surprises amid his sold-out 2026 headline tour across MENA, EU/UK, and North America.
٢. “Snakes & Ladders” Rolls into Abu Dhabi
Mamar Lab, in collaboration with Nicolo Venelli (Vertygo Art) and Shamsa Alnahyan, presents Snakes & Ladders, a playful yet profound exhibition exploring fate, chance, and life’s unpredictable twists. Opening 22 January at MiZa, Abu Dhabi, this show brings together eight emerging regional artists — Gigi, Ina Michaelian, Klaithem, Maitha Bushelaibi, Reem Ali, Safeya Sharif, Sarine Semerjian, and Yoshi (Aisha Al Ali) — who navigate setbacks, opportunities, and personal revelations through space, storytelling, and metaphysical inquiry. Drawing its name from the childhood game, the exhibition turns dice rolls into a meditation on life’s ladders of progress and snakes of misfortune, inviting viewers to reflect on their own journey through colour, form, and chance.
٣. Coach Goes Virtual with Open-Access Sims Collection
Coach brings its signature style to the pixelated world of The Sims™ 4, launching an open-access designer drop available globally from January 13. Players can now dress their Sims in ready-to-wear pieces, iconic Tabby and Brooklyn bags, and unlock mood-driven looks via the exclusive “Coach Trunk.” The collaboration extends Coach’s ethos of self-expression and storytelling into one of gaming’s most creative communities, letting players experiment with identity, style, and courage in a digital space where fashion meets imagination.
٤. Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East Roars Back to Dubai
The Dubai Autodrome gears up for the 2026 Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East on 24–25 January, promising two days of precision racing and lifestyle fun. Hosted by Porsche Centre Dubai and Al Nabooda Automobiles, the event blends wheel-to-wheel action in Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars with interactive showcases, racing simulators, live entertainment, and curated food and social spaces. Families are welcome too, with dedicated kids’ zones ensuring the weekend is as much about high-octane thrills as it is about community, culture, and soaking in the rhythm of the circuit.
٥. Seoul Unveils the World’s First Audio Museum
Seoul has just amplified its cultural scene with the opening of the Audeum Audio Museum — the world’s first museum entirely dedicated to the art, history, and experience of sound. Designed by acclaimed architect Kengo Kuma as a “temple of sound,” the striking space in Seocho District celebrates 150 years of audio innovation with rare historic equipment and immersive sound experiences that go beyond the visual, inviting visitors to literally feel sound in a sensory setting. The museum’s award‑winning interior and its layered aluminum facade have already earned global architectural accolades, making Audeum a must‑visit landmark for audiophiles and culture lovers alike.
٦. “Vertigo”: A Sky‑High Fusion of Dance, Sound & Suspended Performance
The visionary choreographer Rachid Ouramdane — director of Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse — is taking contemporary performance to new heights with Vertigo, a breathtaking aerial work created with composer Christophe Chassol and highliner/adventurer Nathan Paulin. Presented in January 2026 at Villa Hegra in AlUla, the piece transforms desert landscape into a stage where acrobats, highliners and members of the local community — including children from AlUla — move between sky and earth in a poetic exploration of vertigo, trust and human connection. Melding contemporary dance, extreme sports and immersive sound, Vertigo pushes beyond traditional performance, turning weightlessness, risk and solidarity into a sensory lived experience that redefines what performance can be in spaces both spectacular and intimate.
٧. Oumayma Ben Tanfous Unveils Between I and Lands at Cahier Central, Paris
Paris’s Cahier Central bookstore welcomes the launch of Between I and Lands on January 22, the deeply personal debut photobook by Tunisian‑Canadian photographer Oumayma Ben Tanfous — an intimate exploration of return, memory and belonging born from her journey back to the sites of her family’s history after twenty years away. Blending evocative landscapes and portraits with bilingual journal‑like texts, the 124‑page work traces Tunis, Djerba and Kerkennah as both geographical and emotional terrain, revealing the fragile space between memory and reality. With only 300 copies, this visual ode to reconciliation — designed by Maya Moumne with a foreword by Taous Dahmani — marks a milestone in Ben Tanfous’s evolving practice of identity and place, inviting readers to reflect on the layered experience of home and self.
٨. Burberry Celebrates 170 Years with Gabardine Capsule & Archive Revival
London heritage house Burberry is marking its 170th anniversary in 2026 with a special Gabardine Capsule that revisits the brand’s countryside roots and honours its iconic weather‑ready fabric — gabardine, invented by founder Thomas Burberry in 1879. The collection includes reimagined outerwear, knitwear and casual pieces detailed with gabardine and finished with a specially designed label inspired by a 1993 archival slogan, “Burberrys grew out of country life,” nodding to the brand’s early mission to equip outdoor explorers and everyday adventurers alike. Set against rugged landscapes in a campaign filmed in Wales, the drop blends tradition with modern style and underscores Burberry’s enduring connection to craftsmanship, heritage and the English countryside.
٩. Palestinian Memoir I Can Imagine It For Us Debuts in London at Ibraaz
Memoir by Mai Serhan on 28 January 2026 at Minassa, with the author in conversation with cultural historian Hazem Jamjoum. The memoir — a powerful, tricontinental story that traces Serhan’s family from the Nakba’s frontlines to exile across Egypt, Lebanon, Dubai and China — weaves memory, loss, identity, and hope through luminous prose that charts both personal and collective upheaval. Serhan’s work has been widely celebrated for its emotional depth and narrative grace, marking this London launch as a significant moment in diasporic storytelling and Palestinian literature on the global stage.
١٠. Ras Al Khaimah Art 2026 Festival Kicks Off With “Civilizations”
Ras Al Khaimah’s annual outdoor arts celebration returns with a bang — Ras Al Khaimah Art 2026 Festival (January 16–Feb 8) opens its Civilizations-themed programme at the atmospheric Al Jazeera Al Hamra Heritage Village, transforming the historic pearling village into a vibrant hub of global creativity. The opening weekend (Jan 16–18) invites audiences to explore how cultures intersect and evolve through over 200 art installations, guided heritage tours, film screenings, live performances, workshops and even a curated culinary experience called The Hidden Table, all woven into a narrative that celebrates diversity, heritage and artistic exchange.
١١. Hazem Harb Unearths Histories at Art Basel Qatar 2026
Tabari Artspace brings Palestinian visual artist Hazem Harb to Art Basel Qatar 2026, presenting a solo booth that frames his practice through archaeology as critique — excavating the politics of displacement, circulation and historical knowledge through collage, installation, and sculptural works spanning 2018 to today. Born in Gaza in 1980 and now based between Rome and Dubai, Harb fuses archival imagery, found fragments and layered narratives to spotlight how objects, images and people are extracted, transported and reclassified across time and space, confronting erasure while asserting continuity and collective memory. His work — in major collections including the British Museum and shown internationally in London, Copenhagen and Dubai — anchors fragile histories in fresh, poetic forms that rethink heritage, archive and belonging under conditions of ongoing displacement.
١٢. UrArtU Gallery Blooms Into Architecture at Alserkal Avenue
UrArtU Gallery opens a striking new permanent space at Alserkal Avenue this January, reimagined by Crosby Studios as a 220-sqm environment where floristry becomes architecture. Rooted in the studio’s philosophy of Transformism, the space blurs softness and strength, ephemerality and permanence, with flowers no longer decorative but structural and narrative. Anchored by a monumental six-metre aluminium orchid sculpture, the gallery is conceived as a living platform for exhibitions, installations, pop-ups and immersive brand projects — positioning UrArtU as a fresh cultural destination within Dubai’s ever-evolving creative landscape.
