What does it mean to be the voice of a community? Well, in order to give voice, you first need to listen! And we’ve been hearing you loud and clear! To all our fantastic fans, readers, viewers, and followers, we’ve taken your feedback to heart when it comes to producing the kind of content you want to see on your screens.
To help you keep up, we’ve compiled a list of our top new shows, columns, content and more, so you can mark your calendars and never miss an episode or update! Because remember – this is all for you!
Okay, so our top weekly web series isn’t exactly new…Mr. Q and The Qatari Guy have been bringing you bite-sized Qatari cultural tips since 2014! What once started as a sporadic segment, grew into a weekly Sunday series for its second season and quickly became one of the most popular locally-produced content that aimed to help bridge the gap between Qatar’s local and expats communities. Because, hey – we’re all in this together!
BUT, the start of the New Year saw the show take a new twist, adding a female voice to the mix with Aisha Al-Zaimi joining the QTips crew as a cast regular from January 30, 2017, with her first solo episode airing on February 5, 2017. You’d been asking us for a while now to bring a female perspective to QTips and we delivered! Aisha’s also taken up the role of host for our next brand-new weekly show – the Weekend Roundup. But for the meantime, keep tuning in every Sunday for your latest dose of Qatari culture, with more than a few helpings of humour thrown in for good measure!
How does food unite a community? This is the question we explore every Monday on our one-of-a-kind foodie series with Mama Baba Ganoush, aka Kim Wyatt. With a community as diverse as Qatar’s – and with its large expat population – for many, food is our connection to the homes we left behind. It’s also the way we share a piece of ourselves with one another.
It’s these stories – of Food Finds and Food Heroes – that Mama Baba Ganoush hopes to tell, with a few fabulous recipes, celebrity chef interviews, and cooking master-classes thrown in for good measure! From Michelin-star maestros Alain Ducasse, and Sanjeev Kapoor, to Nobu Matsuhisa and more, to the humble yet hearty fare of Matar Qadeem and Al Nasr that have sustained Doha’s hungry working-class for decades, you’ll find it all every week on MBG – right here on ILQ. Hungry yet? Well there’s even more to look forward to as Mama Baba Ganoush kicks off some more great foodie travel destinations. With a recent episode on Zanzibar under her belt, next up is the great Down Under where she’ll be exploring the tastes, sights, and sounds of Australia – so stay tuned and bring your appetite!
Eat your heart out Buzzfeed – ‘cause we’re doing this Qatar-style! (We kid, we kid! We actually love Buzzfeed – especially the Try Guys!) The ILQ Test Drive is one of our newest shows, and to be honest, we weren’t expecting it to take off the way it has! Definitely one of the most fun segments we film each week, what makes this show unique is that because the ILQ team all hail from different countries – seriously, we don’t have one same nationality between us, which is pretty awesome – we all bring our own one-of-a-kind point of view to each and every product we try!
We’ve tried it all, from shocking lie detectors, to Filipino snacks, camel meat, the world’s spiciest Korean noodles, and even products from IKEA Qatar! And that’s just the start. Now heading into our 16th episode, the future for the ILQ Test Drive is bright – with some crazy new products and fresh sponsors on the horizon, prepare to be shocked, disgusted and, (hopefully!) entertained, as we keep trying it all so you don’t have to! Have your taste-buds tune in on Tuesdays!
A show for the fashion-forward couture-lovers out there – and hey, there are a LOT in Doha we’re proud to say – In The Glow is our latest endeavour that aims to keep you on-trend in the world of fashion and beauty, and your look on-point. From fashion show and exhibition coverage (Heya, IWED, and Lagoona Fashion Week anyone?), to makeup tutorials, and product test drives (Korean face masks rock!), we’re excited to keep growing this brand into what will hopefully become one of Qatar’s foremost resources for fashionistas.
With current contributors including Renata Menegaz – our resident Fashion Contributor, makeup artist Roufaida Thabti, and our very own fashion and beauty aficionado Angel Polacco, viewers are in good hands – in the know, and in the glow. Want to know what you can look forward to coming up? Well, we’ll be highlighting the newest caftan and abaya collections from local designers, putting together our top Ramadan fashion look-book, exploring some make-up tutorials to help you boost your colour and beat those dark circles during the fasting month, and more! We’ve got the tools, so you’ll have the look – Wednesdays on ILQ!
Why tell you what’s on the go, when we can show you? Yep, that’s right – the Weekend Roundup is back on ILQ with a new set and a new host – Aisha from QTips! Bringing you the top events happening from Thursday to Saturday each week, we’ve got you covered from sporting tournaments, art exhibitions, the hottest parties and concerts, to community initiatives, and so much more!
With Ramadan just around the corner, we’ll be showcasing all the Holy Month has to offer on the Weekend Round-Up, courtesy of our very own Things To Do and in partnership with with our sister site, Ramadan.qa. From iftars and sohours, to community events, Garangao activities, Eid festivities and more – Weekend Roundup with Aisha will have you covered throughout the Holy Month and beyond! (Also – wait till you see our new set back-drop for Ramadan!) Get your fix every Thursday here on ILQ.
From kayaking in the Al Thakira mangroves, to playing Timba Cars at Katara, and hitting the open waves with the Regatta Sailing Academy, ILQ is committed to showing you the sides of Qatar that you may not know exist. After all – it’s our community and it’s up to us to share and show it to one another, and the world.
What you can look forward to is more outings, more explorations, and more areas and cultural corners of Qatar that don’t get enough recognition. Call us modern-day Indiana Joneses if you will, but if there’s history to discover and heritage and nature to explore – or, just a really cool adventure to be had – you can be sure we’re not going to pass it up!
We’ve got big plans for these kinds of video excursions for when the summer heat subsides – but in the meantime, we’ll be bringing you some indoor adventures, so watch this space!
Yes, that’s ‘community’ with a capital ‘Q’! In one of our newest ILQ features, in each column we’re highlighting a different member of our Doha community who’s making or made a difference in the lives of those around them, or is doing something unique that’s a first for Qatar. We’ve been proud to highlight Evridiki Iliaki, a Life Coach with How Women Work Qatar, who’s empowering local female entrepreneurs; Speed Ali, founder of samaritan organization the Doha Volunteers; Abdulla Al-Hammadi, a Qatari cyclist who cycles the globe to raise funds for charities; and Mohammed Ismail, photographer and founder behind the group Faces of Qatar, whose portraits of the community around him find more similarities than differences between us.
Do you know of someone whose work in the community deserves some recognition? Let us know in the comments below as we continue to showcase the best and brightest lights that shine in our community.
Because we feel its important to highlight our homegrown talent, we’ve decided to shine the spotlight on a new, local startup each week! Keep an eye on our ILQ homepage and social media every Thursday, as this, our newest of columns (two weeks old and growing!) takes you inside the small-to-medium grassroots enterprises that are forming the new backbone of Qatar’s economy on the road to achieving its National Vision 2030. So far, we’ve brought you info on Meddy, Qatar’s first homegrown app that’s connecting patients with the right professionals in the medical community, and Modaris.me – an online platform that helps connect students needing extra help, with the tutors who can provide it.
Are you a local startup that would like to be highlighted? Reach out to us in the comments below!
In fact, if you like what you’ve seen here, we hope that you’ll give us some love, by liking, sharing our new content, and subscribing to our ILQ YouTube and social media channels. Because remember – you’re what keeps us going!
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