RIYADH — The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Turki Al-Sheikh announced the start of the registration in the second edition of the International competition of the Holy Qur'an and Call to Prayer Otr Elkalam (Scent of Speech). The registration process in the competition will start on Jan. 4 through the program's website: https://otrelkalam.com The second edition of Otr Elkalam will include 4 stages, the first of which is registering in the website, then to upload an audio clip to be evaluated by the arbitration committees, which in turn will choose the candidates to move them to the second stage. They then will record new audio clips, which will be again evaluated with the winning candidates advancing to the third stage. The evaluation standards will rise according to the competitive stages, as the best contestants in the third stage will be nominated to the fourth stage that is represented by the final qualifiers. The competitions will be aired during the Holy month of Ramadan on MBC channel and Shahid app. Otr Elkalam is considered the first competition that combines together the competitions for the recitation of the Holy Qur'an and the call to prayer, in addition to being the biggest competition in this field at a global level. The GEA is organizing and supervising the Otr Elkalam. It has allocated historically unprecedented prizes amounting to more than SR12 million. Otr Elkalam competition — its first edition started during Ramadan 1443 AH — aims to shed light on the distinguished and beautiful voices in the recitation and intonation of the Holy Qur'an and the call to prayer. Additionally, Otr Elkalam competition provides a reference of knowledge that the contestants and viewers alike could benefit from to improve the recitation and intonation of the Qur'an or the call to prayer, by applying and following up on the notes made by the arbitration committees. Otr Elkalam, in addition, is also working in identifying and introducing to the world the tolerance and moderation of Islam, the richness and diversity of cultures that the Islamic world enjoys. This is in addition to showing them the audio methods of reciting the Qur'an and raising the call to prayer, as well as to support and empower creative and talented people and celebrating them. GEA has provided the opportunity for all the people from around the world to participate in the competition since the first edition, with easy registration procedures that can be done remotely via the competition website. The number of participants in the first edition reached more than 40,000 contestants from 80 countries.
