Coldplay's sold-out series of shows at Abu Dhabi's Zayed Sports City Stadium ended on Tuesday with 200,000 people, according to promoters Live Nation Middle East, streaming into venue to see the band perform across four nights.
Apart from the band's renowned musical performances, during which the British group has played hits such as Yellow, Viva La Vida and Fix You, the concerts have been full of standout moments, including memorable interactions between the band and fans, heartfelt odes to those in conflict areas and personal milestones for those in attendance.
Here are several of the moments that have been going viral across the UAE from the four shows.
1. Coldplay sends love to Gaza
At one point during the first show, lead singer Chris Martin invited a Pakistani fan on stage, who he asked to choose a song for him to sing. When she chose a song that the band planned to do later, he instead proposed doing a song dedicated to our loved ones that we miss, sending love to our "brothers and sisters in Gaza" among other countries across the world.
This is not the concert's only link to Palestine, as Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna opens all four shows.
2. Fan marriage proposal in the crowd
A fan named Hitesh Vijwani shared a video of his wedding proposal during the first night. While Sky Full of Stars played, he got down on one knee to ask his partner to spend the rest of his life with him, which she tearfully said yes to.
3. Chris Martin speaks Arabic
At the beginning of the first two shows, Chris Martin has offered an extended message in Arabic to the audience of tens of thousands, eliciting a warm response from the massive crowd across Zayed Sports City Stadium.
"Thank you so much, we are happy to be in Abu Dhabi," Martin said in Arabic.
Martin then commented on how international the audience was, which had always been the kind of crowd the band had dreamed of playing in front of.
4. Saudi fans join Coldplay on stage
Midway through the second show on Saturday, Martin invited two young Saudi female attendees up onto the stage after he spotted their sign in the audience. The sign asked the band to "please play Trouble", a song off their 2000 album, Parachutes. The fans were both 22, leading Martin to comment that the song was older than they were.
5. Band participates in pregnant fan's gender reveal
At one point during the show, Martin noticed that two fans were holding a sign that read: "Help us with our gender reveal please?"
"He doesn't know? Ok I've got you," Martin said, before improvising a song about the reveal. "Hello, my beautiful brother and sister. Seeing you gives me such joy. My friends and me, we all want to see, if you're having a girl or a boy."
The woman then revealed that she was having a girl, which elicited cheers from across the crowd.
6. Chris Martin celebrates a mum's first time out in five years
During the Saturday concert, Martin saw a woman holding a sign that stated that she was a mom and this was her first night out in five years. The singer was surprised, asking the fan if he'd read the sign correctly. He then welcomed the fan and thanked her for coming to see the band's show.
7. Chris Martin gives a shout-out to his dad
Chris Martin was among family in Abu Dhabi. The singer took a moment to thank his father, who was revealed by the camera to be in the audience. With his guitar, Martin serenaded Anthony Martin, reportedly a retired chartered accountant. “Many people in the crowd are good-looking, and this guy doesn’t look too bad either,” Martin sang. “But I have to tell you, I know him very well. I do. Because the man on the screen is my dad.”
8. Heavy metal royalty was in attendance
Why did Chris Martin bizarrely sing the chorus of Rammstein’s dark heavy metal hit Du Hast amidst Coldplay’s irrepressibly chirpy setlist on Tuesday? As it turned out, Till Lindemann, the frontman of the German heavy-metal titans, was also in the audience. Spotted on camera during Martin’s musical tribute to the crowd, Lindemann appeared relaxed and jovial. “It is such a great thrill to welcome you, Till, from Rammstein − one of our favourite bands," Martin said.
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
The biog
Hometown: Cairo
Age: 37
Favourite TV series: The Handmaid’s Tale, Black Mirror
Favourite anime series: Death Note, One Piece and Hellsing
Favourite book: Designing Brand Identity, Fifth Edition
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
From exhibitions to the battlefield
In 2016, the Shaded Dome was awarded with the 'De Vernufteling' people's choice award, an annual prize by the Dutch Association of Consulting Engineers and the Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers for the most innovative project by a Dutch engineering firm.
It was assigned by the Dutch Ministry of Defence to modify the Shaded Dome to make it suitable for ballistic protection. Royal HaskoningDHV, one of the companies which designed the dome, is an independent international engineering and project management consultancy, leading the way in sustainable development and innovation.
It is driving positive change through innovation and technology, helping use resources more efficiently.
It aims to minimise the impact on the environment by leading by example in its projects in sustainable development and innovation, to become part of the solution to a more sustainable society now and into the future.
