Any musical event that takes place tends to draw a large crowd, no matter who it is it would seem! The latest was George Michael, with Alicia Keys as his special guest. Not being a big George Michael fan I would not have spent the money to go to the concert, but when a couple of tickets fell in to my lap it seemed rude not to go along (especially since I had very eager company).
We got there a little late, so missed the first song by Alicia Keys whilst in the queue for the ladies. Miss Keys was pretty good. She looked fab, sounded better and had nice interaction with the crowd. However her songs were rather samey and her set seemed to last an eternity! For what I considered to be a warm-up act she was on stage for more than an hour, far too long in my opinion. Her band and backing singers had to persuade the crowd to keep applauding for the obligatory encore, which led me to believe that the crowd weren’t actually all that desperate to have her back on stage.
When Keys had finished, there was an announcement that George Michael would be on in half an hour and that his performance would be in two parts. Half an hour! Now I thought that it would be more prudent to come on whilst the crowd was all fired up rather than making them wait for half an hour getting grumpy – but then I’m not an international superstar so what do I know…
Half an hour dragged on and then the man himself came on stage. The first half of his show was pretty entertaining. The graphics on the set were enchanting and there was a good vibe even though Michael didn’t interact with the crowd at all. After 45 minutes he ran off stage and the display flashed up with the message “Back in 19.59” 20 minutes until he was coming back onstage. 20 minutes!!! To be honest I’d had enough by that stage and was very ready to head home, but we stuck it out… unfortunately.
The second half was dire. Boring and lifeless. Michael talked to the crowd a little bit this time, but only because he needed to do something while the band was being moved from the back to the front of the stage. Another 45mins/hour and he was done. But off course there were to be encores. And not just the one either. We stayed for the first, but then some people sitting near us said they had heard him rehearsing Happy Birthday (on the 4th it was 37 years of independence and unity of the UAE) and I’d heard that he was going to duet with Alicia Keys so we decided to beat the crowd and try to get a cab back.
It was gone 1am by this time and I could take no more.
It was a fun evening, and I’m glad I went along because it’s something different but I dislike ego and there was a hella lot of ego there that night.
We got there a little late, so missed the first song by Alicia Keys whilst in the queue for the ladies. Miss Keys was pretty good. She looked fab, sounded better and had nice interaction with the crowd. However her songs were rather samey and her set seemed to last an eternity! For what I considered to be a warm-up act she was on stage for more than an hour, far too long in my opinion. Her band and backing singers had to persuade the crowd to keep applauding for the obligatory encore, which led me to believe that the crowd weren’t actually all that desperate to have her back on stage.
When Keys had finished, there was an announcement that George Michael would be on in half an hour and that his performance would be in two parts. Half an hour! Now I thought that it would be more prudent to come on whilst the crowd was all fired up rather than making them wait for half an hour getting grumpy – but then I’m not an international superstar so what do I know…
Half an hour dragged on and then the man himself came on stage. The first half of his show was pretty entertaining. The graphics on the set were enchanting and there was a good vibe even though Michael didn’t interact with the crowd at all. After 45 minutes he ran off stage and the display flashed up with the message “Back in 19.59” 20 minutes until he was coming back onstage. 20 minutes!!! To be honest I’d had enough by that stage and was very ready to head home, but we stuck it out… unfortunately.
The second half was dire. Boring and lifeless. Michael talked to the crowd a little bit this time, but only because he needed to do something while the band was being moved from the back to the front of the stage. Another 45mins/hour and he was done. But off course there were to be encores. And not just the one either. We stayed for the first, but then some people sitting near us said they had heard him rehearsing Happy Birthday (on the 4th it was 37 years of independence and unity of the UAE) and I’d heard that he was going to duet with Alicia Keys so we decided to beat the crowd and try to get a cab back.
It was gone 1am by this time and I could take no more.
It was a fun evening, and I’m glad I went along because it’s something different but I dislike ego and there was a hella lot of ego there that night.
