Opening Doorz

By Our Correspondent | Opening Doorz Editorial | February 25, 2017

Courteney Cox will forever remember the night when Bruce Springsteen pulled her on stage during the shooting of Dancing in the Dark video. Directed by Brian DePalma, the video was filmed during Springsteen’s concert at the St. Paul Civic Center in Minnesota on June 29, 1984. Courteney, who was planted in the audience, got the role of the adoring fan in the front row who gets to dance on stage with The Boss.

But last night was different. This was not staged. Faisal (a Saudi fan), up until then was grooving to the beat of the Latino star when he was invited onstage for a duet. It was Ben E King’s Stand By Me. Faisal stood still, shell shocked at first, before making most of the moment with Enrique Iglesias. Faisal was the envy of the female fans as he spent a whole 15 minutes holding centre-stage at the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre, as the curtains came down on the 15th Emirates Airline Dubai Jazz Festival.

But before Enrique could make his late appearance and have the frenzied crowd on their feet, with their hands in the air, Nathan Sykes warmed up the packed-to-capacity crowd with songs from his debut album, Unfinished Business, including Kiss Me Quick, More Than You’ll Ever Know and Give It Up.

When he did give it up for Enrique, it was pandemonium. Already delayed by a full 15 minutes past his scheduled 11pm performance, Enrique immediately launched into Bailamos, his 1998 evergreen hit. What followed next was a night of frenzy as the 41-year-old had the crowd swaying to his charm and beats for a full 105-minutes which witnessed 17 songs and three encores, performing tracks El Perdon, Bailando and I Like It.

Heartbeat, Be With You, I like How It Feels, Bailando, Esto No Me Gusto and Tonight (I’m Loving’ You) proved to be some of the crowd favorites. The superstar who wore his signature white tee and baseball cap closed the show with a rendition of Hero.

The event also featured two secondary stages presenting the Anghami Sessions that showcased exceptional local and regional talents, Hamdan Abri of Abri and Funk, Layla Kardan, Soul Gorilla’z and Still Raw.

The Jazz Fest ended when the founders, ChillOut Productions joined by their sponsors including Emirates Airline and Dodsal had a ceremonial cutting of the cake to mark the occasion. The festival is now the most recognized music event in the UAE and the region receiving more than 20 awards and nominations since its launch in 2003. This year, it attracted over 37,000 guests with more coming from different parts of the world to see music heavyweights Enrique Iglesias, Mariah Carey and Tom Jones.