Smooth storyteller

BAHRAINI-SAUDI TikTok sensation Sonia Alsowaiegh  is expanding her horizons and aiming to stir up more conversations with her new podcast series.

Sonia’s Personal Space features anecdotes and ‘bizarre tales’ from her daily life and endless travels, which she hopes will make people think, learn and laugh.

The content creator has close to a million fans on TikTok, where she gained popularity for her funny, ‘story-time’ videos.

Her first podcast was aired on YouTube on August 19. The 15-minute episode served as an introduction, with Sonia describing it as a ‘personal diary’ that will provide her audience ‘a deeper look into her life’.

Sonia says she was inspired to launch the podcast after reading suggestions from her followers.

“I started my TikTok in 2020 and really wanted to bring my humour to it,” Sonia told GulfWeekly. “The thing that caught people’s attention was my storytelling and I got a lot of comments, with people asking me to start a podcast so they could hear my stories all day,” the former Bahrain Bayan School student added, describing her journey as a compilation of ‘trust the process’ moments.

The first episode has more than 1,500 views.

Last week’s drop, which has earned more than 3,300 views, featured Sonia’s mother as a guest, and touched upon various topics, including her life growing up in Bahrain, moving to Dubai for work and her relationship with her mum, among other things.

She also talks about ‘code switching’ - a linguistic phenomenon where a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in a single conversation or situation - for example a mix of Spanish and English (termed ‘Spanglish’).

The podcast reveals how the family speaks Arabic at home, but started code switching for Sonia’s niece, who had a speech delay. While they were advised to focus on one language by speech therapists, they had to speak English too as the child’s family was in London.

Language alternation is common around the world, however, Sonia has been criticised by a section of her audience who argue that code switching indicates a lack of pride in the Arabic mother tongue.

However, the creator code-switches between English and Arabic (Bahraini dialect) in her content and believes it adds to the genuine delivery of her stories.

“We have a whole new generation that code-switches so much. During my studies in Manchester I mainly spoke English in my day-to-day life, so I’m being as authentic as I can online by not forcing myself to stick to one language and talk the way I do offline,” she added.

Sonia also believes her appeal comes from what she describes as ‘Khaleeji humour’, which is imbued in her stories, as she showcases her life as an Arab woman who deals with different people and cultures during her frequent travelling escapades. Her dramatised delivery is further enhanced as it’s set against catchy sound effects and photographs.

In one of her most viral posts, with more than 35,000 views on TikTok, Sonia shares an account of her trip to Georgia where she got a manicure at a salon located in an ‘old and sketchy’ apartment building. In a follow-up video, she tells her fans how the nail expert - who knew neither Arabic nor English - found her video and mistook her ‘traumatised experience’ to be positive feedback.

“I believe my stories are funny because you don’t expect the ending, it keeps getting worse and worse and worse,” the graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK added.

Sonia hopes to continue her podcast which she claims will allow listeners to take a break from life’s responsibilities and have a hearty laugh.

GulfWeekly previously featured the multimedia artist for her musical projects including her 2020 EP (extended play) Adulting and Adapting. The singer revealed that she is still writing and creating in hopes of releasing more music next year.

Sonia currently resides in Dubai but frequently travels to Riyadh for her freelance work, collaborating with brands to put together creative advertisement campaigns.

She also continues to visit her family in Isa Town, Bahrain, all of which makes her feel like ‘her home is around the Gulf’.

Sonia’s Personal Space will have a weekly release every Tuesday.

For new episodes, subscribe to @PersonalSpace.Podcast on YouTube, and for more details follow @personalspace.pod on TikTok and Instagram.