Dubai goes from business to music mecca
By BARBARA SURK – 1 day ago
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Those who fetch $130 for a barrel
of oil can call the tune these days. And it seems the tune is becoming
so catchy that even Madonna, the original Material Girl, might be
singing soon in this rich Gulf city-state.
Flush with oil
dollars, Dubai is no longer satisfied with being just a business,
tourist and sports mecca. It's trying to boost its prestige further by
pouring money into entertainment to lure the music industry's priciest
stars.
Santana's February concert in Dubai was sold out. Last
week, Jon Bon Jovi performed in Abu Dhabi, the Emirates' capital just a
short ride down the coast.
Justin Timberlake, Elton John, Pink,
Aerosmith, Destiny's Child and the Gypsy Kings have all entertained
Western, Asian and Arab expatriates in the last few months in this
string of seven semiautonomous states in the Persian Gulf. Music fans
regularly fly in from Cairo, Beirut and elsewhere across the Middle
East to hear their idols.
But a Madonna concert — if it happens — would take the musical glitz to a new level.
Earlier
this month, the Dubai-based Gulf News daily and the tabloid 7 Days
reported that the pop diva would come to Dubai this year on a tour
organized by a Los Angeles-based events company, Live Nation, to
promote her new album, "Hard Candy."
Madonna might perform twice,
the newspapers reported, citing event organizers familiar with the
plans — at a public concert and at a private party, a first in her
decades-long career. The price tag for the performances: more than $20
million, the papers said.
So far, however, Madonna's publicists are publicly staying mum.
Nasim
Tabatabaei, marketing and public relations manager for Live Nation
Middle East, based in Dubai, said Madonna was still putting her tour
together.
"She had offers from everywhere, and that could include the Emirates," Tabatabaei told The Associated Press.
The
mania over the possible Madonna concert is a reflection of the fact
that the Emirates have seen "a huge jump in events here, both in the
number of people attending concerts and in the significance of artists
performing," said Thomas Ovesen, managing director of Middle East AEG
Live, the regional arm of an international company that produces live
events worldwide.
The music boom fits in with the Dubai ruler's
ambitious plans to make the city attractive for the rich and famous,
and to fuel mass tourism. Glitzy top-level sports, like March's Dubai
Tennis Championship, are another factor.
In terms of the concert
scene, Dubai has people and firms that can pay top dollar "even though
the event might not be commercially viable," Ovesen said.
Artists
who perform in Dubai expect to earn "twice as much" as they do in the
United States or Europe, Ovesen said. He refused to disclose how much
Bon Jovi walked away with after his performance for a crowd of 17,000
in Abu Dhabi. His company helped organize the concert in one of the
most expensive hotels ever built, The Emirates Palace.
Not everyone is happy about the high production costs.
It's
"good that Dubai is on the radar screen of the world's major
promoters," said Abdullatif al-Sayegh, chief executive of Arab Media
Group, which along with Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks International owns
MTV Arabia.
But it's "not so good that we are paying twice or
three times as much" for concerts as do promoters in the United States
and Europe, he said.
Yet, corporate sponsors are only too eager
to throw their money behind music and sports heavyweights to raise
their company profiles. Paul Idznik, Barclays' chief operating officer,
said his bank invested $9 million to sponsor the tennis championship
the past three years.
An additional attraction for famous
visitors and artists is the privacy in Dubai — filled with gated
communities and a mostly nonintrusive local press.
"Celebrities
come, relax, dine, party and shop without the media ever finding out
they were even here," al-Sayegh said. "That's a great feeling for them
and for us."
Associated Press writer Alfred de Montesquiou contributed to this report.
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