Breaking the stereotypes, here is an example of a woman who nurtured the talent she was born with, didn’t let the challenges stop her from choosing to follow her passion and set an example for other women in the region. Sawsan Al Bahiti comes with a long rich experience in operatic singing since 2008, making her the first professional Saudi Opera Singer. She sings in Italian, French, German, and English.
According to different sources, Al Bahiti obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication from the American University of Sharjah in the UAE, which is where she discovered that she could sing opera, after she took an elective course in singing. Her professor encouraged her to train to become an opera singer, and that’s exactly what she did.
After she returned to Saudi, Al Bahiti couldn’t find any voice coaches to continue practicing with, so her only solution to help her stay connected with her passion was to use the recordings from her vocal sessions with her previous instructor.
It was also challenging for Al Bahiti to continue practicing, knowing the obstacles for a Saudi woman back then to pursue a singing career and perform in public. So she started a job in her academic field, but that didn’t last after she realised how unhappy and unfulfilled she was, deciding it was finally time to fully commit to her true passion.
According to Al Bahiti herself, “I hadn’t realized that it had been a year since the launch of Vision 2030 and the General Authority for Entertainment. I thought, okay, so this is the time I could really take up my career as a musician” she shared in an interview with Opera Wire.
Al Bahiti decided to become a certified coach, Which she accomplished at the New York Coaching Vocal Centre. And that led her to open her own studio in Jeddah: The Soulful Voice, where she uses it to set a higher standard for the music industry in Saudi by helping singers become better artists.
With her powerful and well-trained voice, Al Bahiti sung the Saudi national anthem in an operatic tune in Riyadh in 2019 in celebration of her country’s 89’s national day, and has performed several times ever since, including at the Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Al Bahiti aims to leave her own print in the Opera world by developing classic music in the Arabic language, to build a new bridge between the Arab audience and Opera.
