Key Takeaways
- The Joy Awards returned to Riyadh for the sixth time, featuring a star-studded lineup and marking a significant milestone in Saudi Arabia’s growing entertainment industry.
- The event has become a major annual entertainment ritual in the kingdom, with a large audience and widespread social media engagement.
- Saudi Arabia’s entertainment market is projected to be worth $4.6 billion by 2030, with a growing number of concerts, film festivals, and sporting events throughout the year.
- The kingdom’s investment in entertainment has been criticized by some as an attempt to deflect from its human rights record, but others argue that citizens and residents should be able to enjoy high-quality entertainment.
Introduction to the Joy Awards
The Joy Awards returned to Riyadh for the sixth time on Saturday night, a star-heavy evening that has become one of the kingdom’s biggest annual entertainment rituals. The event, which is unmistakably the brainchild of Saudi entertainment chief Turki Alsheikh, was a grand affair that played out like a holiday in Saudi living rooms. With watch parties, group chats, and running commentary from social media, the event was a major topic of discussion, with many people tuning in to see what their favorite celebrities were wearing. On the lavender carpet, Katy Perry wore a dress by Saudi designer Waad Aloqaili before opening the show with a musical tableau, setting the tone for a night that would bring together stars from around the world.
The Growth of Saudi Arabia’s Entertainment Industry
The Joy Awards is easy to read as spectacle, but it’s also a marker of how quickly the kingdom has built an entertainment sector. A decade ago, cinemas were banned in Saudi Arabia, but now the country runs a year-round calendar of concerts, film festivals, and sporting events. The Joy Awards sit at the center of that, and the event has become a major driver of the kingdom’s growing entertainment industry. Saudi’s entertainment market is projected to be worth $4.6 billion by 2030, with a growing number of events and activities taking place throughout the year. The Red Sea Film Fund has backed more than 200 releases since it was set up in 2019, including this year’s historical drama Palestine 36. Fashion has also moved in parallel, with Riyadh Fashion Week becoming an annual fixture and Saudi designers increasingly showing abroad.
The Demand for Entertainment in Saudi Arabia
There’s a tendency, mostly in Western press, to frame all of this as image management by the Saudi government. But the more basic story is demand. Saudis want big nights on the calendar, and they want something shared to talk about the next morning. Whether it’s a fireworks finale, a surprise duet, or a debate about the aesthetics of lavender carpets, the Joy Awards have succeeded in delivering that. Social media engagement is a key metric, and the event has generated a huge amount of buzz online. The fact that Saudis are eager to participate in and engage with these events suggests that there is a genuine appetite for entertainment in the kingdom, and that the government is responding to that demand.
Criticism and Controversy
Not everyone sees Saudi’s investment in entertainment as benign. Human Rights Watch says the government’s spending is aimed to deflect from its human rights record. The organization argues that while Saudi citizens and residents should be able to enjoy high-quality entertainment, the issue is not the events themselves but the absence of basic rights like free expression and peaceful assembly. This criticism highlights the complexities and challenges of Saudi Arabia’s growing entertainment industry, and the need for the government to balance its investment in entertainment with its human rights obligations.
The Future of Saudi Arabia’s Entertainment Industry
The Joy Awards 2026 was organized by the General Entertainment Authority in partnership with MBC and was broadcast on MBC channels and Shahid. The event featured a number of notable winners, including BeIN Media Group chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who received the Entertainment Makers Diamond Award. The fact that Al-Khelaifi, who is also the president of French football club Paris Saint-Germain, was honored at the event is a significant development, given the history of tension between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Looking ahead, it’s clear that Saudi Arabia’s entertainment industry is set to continue growing, with a young population turning entertainment into an everyday spend. Arts and entertainment commercial registrations in the kingdom rose 20% in 2024, according to Arab News, and the cinema market has grown into the region’s largest since reopening in 2018, with revenue projected to hit $1 billion a year by 2030.
