NPR audio: All girl band in Saudi Arabia, “The Accolade”
The conservative Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hardly a place where you’d expect to hear about up-and-coming rock bands. But more and more new groups are cropping up, recording in the privacy of their homes and gaining notoriety by posting songs on Facebook and MySpace.
The latest phenomenon, The AccoLade, is one of the country’s first all-female rock bands. During the day, its members attend the all-female university in Jeddah, and at night they get together and jam.
The attention started when the group recorded its first single and posted it on a social networking site.
“We just downloaded our song in Facebook, and we got fans — Saudi fans, actually, first — and they really loved our song so much and support us so much,” says Dina, the band’s guitarist. “Then the fans become international.”