From correspondents in Middle East, 06:33 PM IST

India's well-known Bollywood and Indi-pop singer Sunidhi Chauhan will perform at the Asian Games Opening Ceremony here along with select artistes picked from the across the globe for this gala event.

Though all kinds of rumours and names have been floating around the Qatari capital, the organising committee has announced that Sunidhi Chauhan, Hong Kong's pop superstar Jacky Cheung and Lebanese artiste Magida El Roumi will be a part of the ceremony.

Sunidhi will sing 'Reach Out', a song written by Australian composers Paul Begaud and Vanessa Corish, and it will be a salute to athletes from 45 countries participating in the Games. Sunidhi is coming from a 12-stop tour of the US.

Magida El Roumi and José Carreras, who performed at the 1990 World Cup football, will together sing 'Light The Way' to herald the arrival of the Torch into the Khalifa Stadium.

Rumours abounded that Madonaa may be among the performers, but if she or any other star at that level does turn up, it will be a last minute surprise sprung on the spectators at the Khalifa Stadium.

The accent some feel is on Asian superstars and so Western stars may not be among the invitees, but a few weeks back at the Reach Out to Asia (ROTA) auction of sports memorabilia, including the ball used at the 2006 World Cup football, many global stars were present.

However world stars like David Beckham and Ronaldinho have been used to endorse many of Qatar's sporting facilities like the Sports City and world's largest Indoor Hall, ASPIRE, which will host seven Asian Games disciplines.

The Australian company David Atkins Enterprise (DAE) has conceived, created and produced the Opening and Closing' Ceremonies for the Games.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)