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How Will Jennifer Grout Perform on MBC's New Show Despite Not Understanding Arabic?

posted on: Apr 27, 2014

The international reality TV show “Your Face Sounds Familiar” which has been hugely successful in countries including the United Kingdom and Spain debuted this Saturday on MBC.

Similar to the global format, “Your Face Sounds Familiar” or Shaklak Mish Ghareeb will see some of the Arab world’s famous faces impersonate the region’s biggest stars.

Every week, they will be judged on their performances by Lebanese superstar Haifa Wehbe, Egyptian star Hakim and Egyptian director Mohamed Sami.

Every week, the celebrity contestants get to find out who they have to impersonate, but the catch is they could find themselves transformed into someone ultra challenging. The panel of judges will then award points based on singing, style and believability.

The scores are tallied, ranking the contestants from first to last, but the unique factor is that there are no eliminations. Instead, whoever wins that episode receives a cash prize for a charity of their choice.

Representing the females are Dima Kandalaft, Mais Hamdan, Bassima and Jennifer Grout, while the male contestants will be Abdel Menem Amayre, Tamer Abdel Menem, Wael Mansour and Khaled Al Shaer.

Remember the 23-year-old Boston native, who won over the region after performing a song by Umm Kulthum on Arabs Got Talent? Despite not speaking a word of Arabic?

Well, she has been snapped up to appear on Shaklak Mish Ghareeb, making her the first American contestant to appear on an Arab celebrity show as a contestant.

“It’s a big step to be on the show,” she told Yahoo Stars. “[But] in the end I thought it would be such a great experience, and there’s not the pressure of it being a competition.

“It has been tough putting the dancing and the acting together – the singing is the easiest part. But the acting coach is talking about a lot of gestures. It’s boggling my mind right now!”

Maktoob Entertainment