2007 - Dubai Desert Rhythm Festival 27-10-2007: REVIEWS!

[vanessa]

I found a video where he speaks lebanese :

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ovde0tvtYwI

[backflip_76]

I found a video where he speaks lebanese :

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ovde0tvtYwI

Thanks Vanessa! Even though I have absolutely no idea what he's saying

[avoca]

hello georgio and welcome to the forum and to the mika magic..

 

hehehe we all know how you feel, the shows always leave ya breathless.

 

glad mika finally made it to middle east and it seems it was a grand show. thx a lot for the pics. and thanks to titania too.

[mikaddict]

Thanks Vanessa! Even though I have absolutely no idea what he's saying

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

thank you all for your posts and picks!!!

[Sivan]

i dont get why mika didnt come to Israel......

 

all his songs were number one here.... people LOVE him here...

[mariposa]

i dont get why mika didnt come to Israel......

 

all his songs were number one here.... people LOVE him here...

 

Maybe for the next tour?!

Keep my fingers crossed for you!

[Sarina]

 

 

WOW!

Amazing pictures!!!

I love it

[wayne_is_hot]

Hello! This is my first post here. I've long been a fan of Mika's but I only thought of joining a fanclub now....Why now? Well, I'm back from Mika's concert in Dubai!!! Yes, I go to the American University in Dubai and to get to the venue where his concert was, all I had to do was cross the street. Enough about me, more about the wonderness that is Mika.

 

So this Desert Rythm Festival is a two day thing. The first night had Kanye West, Ziggy Marley and others, while the second day had Joss Stone and others...oh and MIKAAAAAAA!

 

I got to the venue at around 5 pm. The venue was huge and there were so many really cool themed stands and stalls all around and right in the center was the stage and the standing area. When I got there everyone was sitting down, drinking and chilling. Then Black Guitar came on and they were really good, followed by Joss Stone who was also very very good. Then there was one.

 

So after Joss Stone finished her bit, my friends and I pushed and shoved our way to the 3rd line from the front. We waited for around 45 minutes all cramped and hot but very excited. We made some friends with people around us. Everyone there was extremely happy. We saw the stage getting set up with the band's equipment which was adorned with colorful flowers very ala Mika. In the center of the stage there was this huge blue balloon tied down.

 

At 09:45 pm, all lights went out and some faint white light was shining on the screen. The crowd was going insane! Then some trippy vocals started playing, which sounded like something out of an 80's B-movie (very cool) and the lights started playing around. Then the balloon POPPED and there was a dancing butterfly woman. She finished her 20 second dance and she walked away...a few seconds later, Mika came on! CROWD = INSANITY!

 

He was posing with his hand up and his knee bent, looking to the side of the stage, then RELAX, TAKE IT EASY started playing. The entire crowd was singing along. It was absolutely amazing. After that, Mika said that although he is half Lebanese, his Arabic "mannoo mneeh kteer" (isn't so good). He then asked around if there were any Big Girls in the audience!! He told all the small skinny girls to get multiplied by four and BAM!, BIG GIRLS (YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL) was on!

 

He sang every song on his album except Erase. He also had 3 songs I had never heard before. One of them was apparently a new song of his that I think is called How Much Do You Love Me, which was an AWESOME song. This other one had to do with praying and preachers and was really nice to. The 3rd song sampled this dance song (you know the one with the video of the dancing bunnies that go crazy).

 

Great moments/quotes: Before "Billy Brown", Mika said that when he first sampled this song to his American recording agency, they said: "there is no way we're putting this song out, no way"..."and look at us NOW!"

 

Before "How Much Do You Love Me", Mika said this: "A long time ago-Actually not a very long time ago-8 months ago, I had to sample my new songs on 10 or 15 friends...now it's 15,000 people in ****ING DUBAI!"

 

At some point, during an instrumental, Mika went offstage and came back with his shirt off and his drummer pulled out this huge, decorated trash-can and they both started banging on it making music. It was insane.

 

For Big Girl, there was a huge blow-up Big Girl, and there was also a huge blow-up little girl for Lollipop which Mika played with. (More on Lollipop below)

 

Love Today needs a mention because it was AMAAAAAZING! He gave it a new start, his voice went all high pitch and Freddie-ish and he sang a slow rendition of the verse "little tight like to tease for fun/licks her lips like they're something other/tries to tell you life has just begun/but she ain't gonna tease no other, gonna make you a lover. I believe it was in this song that he did some pelvic thrusting that was just genius just because it was Mika. AAAAAA AMAAAAZING!

 

Grace Kelly was really awesome. Mika had the crowd participate in this song so much.

 

After Grace Kelly, Mika went offstage saying good bye but then him and his band ran on stage dressed as animals like a bunny (drummer), alligator (Mika), and others. All the animals were attacking the bunny and the alligator tried humping her but then the Bunny went all Kong-fu on their asses with her drumsticks and "beat them down". Then they all took off their costume heads as behind them, a big blow up doll of a girl with a...LOLLIPOP. Mika put his alligator head on so that the mouth was eating his head for a while. Then Lollipop started playing just as a whole bunch of HUGE balloons were thrown at the audience who were just raving mad at that point. Mika was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! Then confetti of every type fell from the sky, hearts red and gold, long lines of silver and blue and gold, with the insanity of the lights. It was beyond anything.

 

IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE!

 

Mika really really loved us! He kept bowing and he was laughing during so many of his verses. He kept saying how we were one of the loudest crowds he's ever heard. We were singing along to every song. You would've been so proud.

 

Hope that's not too hard to read through.

 

 

 

OMG!!! I so wish I could've been there! It sounds like so much fun! Mika is such an amazing performer!

[Blue Sky]

MIKA in Dubai on youtube (the atmosphere was something else....)

 

Guess we were all busy with other things and missed these...

 

Love Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrPSSA2Zfx4

Drums (shirtless)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Frx_r4-ha8

 

Lollipop dance (no shadows) really good!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh1ve_ZVRvA

 

Billy Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkDX8nrfy-Y

 

Ring ring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJOqYYO_z0M

 

How much do you love me (but so much screaming I guess everyone didn't know these two songs in Dubai, except the person filming!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-LMMmwn6JU

 

 

and from someone else

Any other world

 

The atmosphere is not like a MIKA-only concert more like a festival, which is what it was anyway. Lots of talking and stuff. And the add comments feature has been disabled on lots of the videos, so whether people were writing rude things or not???

[greta]

MIKA in Dubai on youtube (the atmosphere was something else....)

 

Guess we were all busy with other things and missed these...

 

Love Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrPSSA2Zfx4

Drums (shirtless)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Frx_r4-ha8

 

Lollipop dance (no shadows) really good!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh1ve_ZVRvA

 

Billy Brown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkDX8nrfy-Y

 

Ring ring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJOqYYO_z0M

 

How much do you love me (but so much screaming I guess everyone didn't know these two songs in Dubai, except the person filming!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-LMMmwn6JU

 

 

and from someone else

Any other world

 

The atmosphere is not like a MIKA-only concert more like a festival, which is what it was anyway. Lots of talking and stuff. And the add comments feature has been disabled on lots of the videos, so whether people were writing rude things or not???

 

thanx bluesky! UAO those vids are hq.. amazing!

[lebanese_wolf]

omg u guys shood av seen how the crowd went after he sed "lebanese"

they wer screaming soooo fkin loud!!!!

he was tryin 2 say a few words in lebanese but no1 could hear him cuz every1was screaming so loud!!!

[norwalk174]

omg u guys shood av seen how the crowd went after he sed "lebanese"

they wer screaming soooo fkin loud!!!!

he was tryin 2 say a few words in lebanese but no1 could hear him cuz every1was screaming so loud!!!

 

that's so cool!! you can tell he loves it when people cheer for him

[Kumazzz]

Gulf News

29 Oct 2007

https://pressreader.com/@Eriko_Shino/csb_qcQ8GhhytA4MU4WCbdhE3Y72nFtORaKpuPxnnirXYSyMrFj9U3zwNt6BDFSJb84l

 

Mika, Abri and Arash rock out on stage in Dubai
Day two of the Desert Rhythm Festival rocked Dubai

 

Families and friends once again secured their spot of grass at Dubai Media City's Amphitheatre for the second day of Desert Rhythm. With an all-star line-up including Joss Stone, Mika, Black Violin and local bands Abri and Arash, it’s no surprise the venue was busy from the outset.

Youngsters had their faces painted while others took part in the competitions taking place on the side stage on Saturday. Montel Ganner, aged 8, said he was so excited about seeing Mika that he had lost his appetite.

‘SO COOL’

He said: “I thought I was hungry when I got here, but now all I think about is how amazing he is going to be. I can’t wait, I think he is so cool.”

Crowds enjoyed the casual atmosphere as the bands started to appear and the venue excitement grew as the festival got into full swing.

 

page-69

 

https://pressreader.com/@Eriko_Shino/csb_qcQ8GhhytA4MU4WCbdhE3WkL6K3Nk4xUs2FLBdn_-ra28CYelT5XtzTK7VThBiKx

 

MIKA MANIA

Heeeeere’s Mika! The amphitheatre roared for the Lebanese-born singer when he performed as the headlining act at the Desert Rhythm Festival

• Gulf News
• 29 Oct 2007
• By Kelly Crane Staff Reporter

 

Seeing Mika at the top of the bill on day two of the Desert Rhythm Festival understandably raised questions about his popularity over singers such as Joss Stone. But it turns out the organisers had it all sewn up and the decision was in fact the right one.

BLOW-UP DOLLS

Kanye West got the screams and shouts, as you’d expect, and Stone had people singing and dancing along. But Mika — well, he entertained.

From giant blow-up dolls and pigs, to crocodile, duck and rabbit costumes, his crew certainly knew how to throw a party on stage.

He may have refused interviews and press conferences, due to an international ban he has going on, but what we didn’t get to ask him he definitely made up for when he burst onto the stage from a giant blue bubble complete with wings and a white shirttrouser combo.

And not only that but, born in Lebanon, he tried his hardest to remember as much Arabic as possible in a bid to communicate with his nonEnglish speaking fans.

People of all ages rushed as near to the stage as possible to catch a glimpse of the showman. All the favourites made an appearance including Big Girls, Love Today and Grace Kelly, which had the audience going wild.

Mika rose to fame around the end of 2006 and was trained by Alla Ardakov (Ablaberdyeva), a Russian opera professional. He knows how to entertain, maybe due to the fact his public performances vary from classical performances at the Royal Opera House, writing in-flight music for British Airways and creating an Orbit chewing gum jingle.

VOCAL RANGE

But it’s his rumoured-to-be five octave vocal range which seems to really win him points.

Mika is the first performer I have seen in a while who really looks like he is having fun on stage. He embraces every minute of his show and seems to almost feed off the audience for inspiration.

Jumping from front-of-stage microphone songs to tunes while seated at his piano, he literally ran everywhere for the entire performance.

The girls had their way as the singer whipped off his top before bounding back on stage to join his female drummer for a dustbin “drum-off ”.

Flowers of all colours were hanging from pretty much every microphone stand, amp and piece of equipment in sight, exuding a feeling of fun.

Suffice to say, Mika will always be welcome to return to the UAE — people loved him.

 

page-79

 

[Kumazzz]

https://gulfnews.com/the-best-of-desert-rhythm-1.208261

Lebanese-born British singer Mika performs with band members during the second day of the event.

 

Image Credit:Reuters

 

[Kumazzz]

INDIPENDENT UK

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/dubai-music-festival-desert-storm-5328874.html

 

Dubai Music Festival: Desert storm

 

Dubai is the brashest, most OTT city in the world, and now it has a pop festival to match. Simon Hardeman mingled with the Gucci-wearing crowd for two days of bling – and a bit of music, too

• Tuesday 30 October 2007 01:00

 

Spoiler

Dubai is bling city: it has the world's tallest building (the Burj Dubai), the largest shopping mall, and the most ludicrously OTT shoreline developments (including three palm-shaped arrangements of islands and another in the shape of the world itself).

Everywhere you look there's a price-tag-is-everything attitude. One Chrysler Building? Pah – there are two look-alikes going up next to each other. Its new airport will be bigger than Cardiff. Not Cardiff airport – Cardiff. And then there's the huge indoor ski-slope with real snow, the enormous baroque-cum-neoclassical waterfront project... It seems a developer only has to want to build something even more outlandish than the last for it to become reality in next to no time.

 

And culture is what Dubai wants now. Earlier this year, Iron Maiden played the rock festival, and now the poppier Desert Rhythm Festival has hit town after expanding from last year's single day to two days of pop. It took place over the weekend in a shallow grassy bowl in front of the lake by the CNN, Reuters, and Middle East Broadcasting buildings of Dubai's Media Centre. The location was forced upon the organisers when last year's out-of-town venue was sold to developers at late notice. But if the reason was typical of Dubai's pell-mell development, then its effect has been to locate the now annual festival somewhere that could not be more apt.

 

Talking of apt, the headliner of the first night amid the navigation light-winking skyscrapers was Kanye West, a man whose band mostly comprised a 13-piece string and horn section featuring fabulously attractive women, in gorgeous silver gowns, who sawed and blew away even when the music had no apparent string or horn component. The harpist was a particularly forlorn figure, only occasionally called upon to pluck a few chords, but perched high and looking impossibly alluring: she was so Dubai.

 

 

Musical bling aside, West was tremendous. In a black suit that flashed red lining as he pumped and punched and flailed, his huge gold teddy-bear pendant the brightest thing on the outdoor stage, he certainly wasn't in town just to make up the numbers – whether on the concert's bill or his own. His one-and-a-half-hour set in the 26C heat of late evening was a masterpiece of pacing. The pounding first two-thirds were irresistibly epic, string-laden, even gothic: "Touch the Sky", "Diamonds", and "Gold Digger" all overwhelming. "What do you want?" he demanded during "Gold Digger", and the crowd, in their Gucci, Chanel, and Moschino finery, screamed back, as one, "We want greenbacks!" Boomtown, you soon discover, is an irony-free zone.

Around the hour mark he became quiet and personal. "Everything I'm not, made everything I am," he intoned, building through references to the locality ("I'm living the Dubai-type dream") to a show-stopping climax of "I'm the MAN!". Except that the show didn't stop: he returned, in a neon-seamed jacket, for a crunching "Stronger".

 

Earlier in the day, Ziggy Marley had ignored local organisers' requests not to sing "Shalom" in a set whose high points were jolly readings of his father's hits, and Madness had put in a tired but expat-pleasing greatest-hits set. Both were entertaining, but as much in the shadow of past glories as of the surrounding cluster of vertiginous concrete, and neither seemed to belong here anyway: Marley because the lack of any odour of ganja during his set was overpowering (a sign at the airport announces that possession of drugs is punishable by death), and Madness because they sing of English rain and domesticity.

 

After a performance by the Euro-Iranian Arash, Joss Stone began the business end of day two. The first half of her set was mostly drawn from her latest album, Introducing Joss Stone, a series of unconvincing, smooth, slick and indulgent tunes, in which her top-notch band, with its former James Brown sidemen, barely got out of first gear. The most toe-curling moment was when she announced, in a voice wobbling unsurely back and forth across the Atlantic, that she had finally found her true love, and it was music. Pass the D&G sickbag...

 

Stone asked if Dubai was digging her, and the 15,000 privileged locals and expats in attendance sounded a little unsure. Dubai doesn't buy in huge acts to watch them pass through the moments of self-discovery that the 20-year-old Stone is patently experiencing, after the first flush of her success. No: Dubai wants what it can afford, and it can afford the very best.

Stone belatedly complied. With perhaps unconscious candour, she said: "I want to tell you something real and honest," and found some passion as she delivered "You Had Me", her signature tirade against an old boyfriend. The band found fire as she did, with Eric Baker's fatback guitar particularly hot. The penultimate "Tell Me About It" was a tour de force, where each band member took stunning solos. By the time Stone finished with a breathlessly soulful "Leave Me Alone", no one was happy to acquiesce. It was just a shame that it took her so long in the set to free herself and, especially, her wonderful band.

 

 

Aside from showing off their latest luxury-brand togs, it was plain that the audience was mainly there for the teenybop sensation Mika. He is almost the exact antithesis of West – white where the latter is black, light where West is dark, and bright and trebly where the rapper is low and throbbing. Mika's nuclear falsetto not only thrilled the crowd but also threatened to knock out the swathes of plate glass in the surrounding towers. As he bounced around the stage, clad in dental white, he was like a kids' TV presenter on a diet of industrial-strength E-numbers. Hyperactive toddlers must gaze upon him in awe.

 

His songs are pure Eurovision with candy-stripes through them of Freddie Mercury, Robbie Williams and Elton John. He did the hit album Life in Cartoon Motion, of course, with a couple of new songs, and the crowd – of all ages, it must be said, but chiefly in their teens and early twenties – absolutely adored it, even helping him out of a little local difficulty by singing the last word of the line, "Billy Brown fell in love with a... man!"

He and his band encored – in furry animal costumes, no less – with "Lollipop", and balloons, glitter and streamers cascaded into the cheering, dancing, mass as their squeaky hero bounced out of view in his now off-the-shoulder alligator get-up.

Dubai is the biggest, boldest, brashest upstart place in the world, and Mika was made for both for it and its unashamedly exhibitionist inhabitants.