brill.com/mjcc MEJCC Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 6 (2013) 213–228 © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI 10.1163/18739865-00602004 The Bleak Romance of Taḥliya Street* Pascal Menoreta and Nadav Saminb a) NYU Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Email: pm97@nyu.edu b) Princeton University, USA Email: nadav.samin@gmail.com Abstract Popular culture in the oil-exporting countries of the Arabian Peninsula is often seen as being caught between religiosity and conspicuous consumption. Mosques and shopping malls populate stereotypical descriptions of modern cities in the region, from Mecca to Dubai and from Abu Dhabi to Riyadh. Yet popular culture cannot be reduced to theme parks and taped sermons, rollercoasters, and pilgrimages. This paper introduces a kasra, which is a popular musical form used by Saudi youth to voice their desires, dissatisfaction and protests. This particular song, entitled ‘At-Taḥliya’, draws its name from a famous avenue of the Saudi capital, and touches upon same-sex love, unemployment, and economic hardship. A detailed introduction is followed by the transliteration of the song and its English translation. Keywords Saudi Arabia, popular music, same-sex love, subculture, urban culture A Taḥliya Escapade In search of romantic adventure, a young man cruises in his new car on Taḥliya Street, one of the trendiest thoroughfares in Riyadh, the Saudi * Authors’ note: This article presents a discussion, transliteration, and translation of a kasra, by which is meant here a musical genre associated with Saudi youth in Riyadh of Bedouin-origin.We have chosen to include the transliterated text of the kasra because we hope to expose the reader to the distinctive flavor and rhythm of the central Arabian Bedouin dialect, being aware that few such examples exist in print, and none from this par- ticular genre of contemporary Saudi music. We thank the reviewers for their comments and Frédéric Lagrange (University of Paris 4 Sorbonne), Nathalie Peutz and Justin Stearns (NYU Abu Dhabi), for their close reading of our draft. Elements of this paper have benefited from feedback from various audiences at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU. We also thank A., M. and M. al-ʿUtaibī for their help with the Arabic text and with the English translation.