What does a Dh47,850 concert ticket actually get you? For Kiss fans in 2020, it meant your own hotel room at Atlantis The Palm, with a private balcony overlooking a socially distanced stage – part of a five-night New Year's package during the height of the pandemic.
Fast forward to December 31 this year: if you have Dh6,500 to spare, you can catch Maroon 5 performing at Atlantis The Royal's first public New Year's Eve concert, complete with a lavish buffet. Want to sing She Will Be Loved and Payphone with nine friends and a private butler? That'll cost Dh200,000 for a Sky Suite.
While the numbers may raise eyebrows, this reflects a long-running trend. The UAE has turned luxury live music into a signature – blending performance, setting and scale in ways few markets attempt.
Here’s a look back – and in one case, ahead – at six of the country’s most exclusive and lavishly priced concerts, listed in ascending order.
6. Dh4,000: Andrea Bocelli at Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, 2024
You would have been hard-pressed to find a more elegant and enchanting way to welcome 2025 in the UAE than this classy affair with Andrea Bocelli. Joined by his orchestra and Lebanese soprano Mayssa Karaa, the celebrated Italian tenor performed some of his beloved arias, including Con te partiro, The Prayer and Vivo per lei, on the grounds of the palatial beachside resort in a black-tie dinner affair that ended with fireworks.
5. Dh4,500: Armin van Buuren at Ritz-Carlton Al Wadi Desert, Ras Al Khaimah, 2024
The kind of spectacle where the lavish desert landscape was the star of the show. The Dutch DJ's trance and atmospheric anthems went down a treat at this October show. A capacity of 1,000 people was on hand to see van Buuren perform a set with exclusive production that included drones, fireworks and lasers. The amphitheatre layout allowed audience members to see from all angles, making the show resemble a special desert version of the popular online dance music concert series Boiler Room.
Best part of all, for some folks anyway, is the show wasn't van Buuren's usual seven-hour epic set. The Dutch spinner ended his four-hour performance at 1am.
4. Dh4,500: Lionel Richie at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai, 2024
Before this year's New Year's revelry moves to the more ultra-luxe Atlantis Royal, many of Dubai's biggest New Year's Eve concerts were held at the neighbouring family-friendly Atlantis, The Palm resort, with previous artists over the years including Sting, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams. Last year was no different, with a dinner concert by Hello singer Lionel Richie – a breezy 60-minute selection of his greatest hits from both his solo and Commodores catalogue, including All Night Long, Dancing on the Ceiling, Penny Lover and Sail On.
3. Dh5,000: Atif Aslam and Sami Yusuf at Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi, 2025
Expensive tickets aren't reserved for New Year's Eve or beachside venues – sometimes it's simply about being front row for a meeting of musical giants. Pakistani pop star Atif Aslam and British singer Sami Yusuf will perform separate sets on October 7 that highlight Aslam's elegant ballads and Yusuf's compositions rooted in Islamic history and heritage.
Organisers are promising a production to match the occasion. Each artist will perform with their own orchestras and stage design.
2. Dh10,000: Enrique Iglesias at Nammos Dubai, 2022
For such a party starter, the Spanish pop star has rarely headlined his own New Year's Eve concert. His Dubai show marked his first solo end-of-year bash in a career spanning over three decades, giving the event an air of exclusivity. Iglesias took the purpose-built stage at the Jumeirah beach club, an outpost of the popular Mykonos party spot, alongside Cuban pop group Gente de Zona.
With tickets ranging from Dh8,000 to Dh10,000, the event followed a “glam chic” dress code. The intimate crowd dined on a Mediterranean dinner before hitting the dance floor to see Iglesias ring in 2023 with hits like Bailando, I Like It and Bailamos.
1. Dh47,850: Kiss at Atlantis, The Palm, 2020
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Kiss performed on New Year’s Eve 2020 at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai. All photos: Pawan Singh / The National -
The American rockers put on a record-breaking live stream show in Dubai -
The show was streamed to a global audience of two million people -
It also broke two Guinness World Records – highest flame projection in a music concert and for most flame projections launched simultaneously in a music concert -
Kiss are currently on their final End of the Road world tour -
The tour consists of 240 shows spanning locations in the US as well as across Europe and Asia -
The tour, which began in Vancouver, Canada in 2019, is meant to celebrate the group's 40-plus years in the business -
The End of the Road tour is set to conclude in New York's Madison Square Garden in December -
The band’s line-up includes two original members, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, along with drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer -
Some of the band's biggest hits include I Was Made for Lovin’ You, Rock and Roll All Nite, Detroit Rock City and Heaven’s on Fire -
Kiss's greatest hits set in Dubai in 2020 featured more than $1 million worth of pyrotechnics
Not many fans would shell out nearly Dh50,000 to see a rock concert – then again, not many bands inspire the kind of devotion Kiss enjoyed in the final years of their career. But this was no ordinary New Year’s Eve gig. Held at the height of the pandemic, when the live music industry was effectively shut down, the New Year’s Eve show at Atlantis, The Palm made headlines for offering a possible blueprint for safe, large-scale performance.
The resort became a tightly controlled bubble, where safety protocols never came at the expense of spectacle. Most attendees paid the eye-watering sum to watch the show from private hotel balconies overlooking the purpose-built stage that floated above the pool, with the ticket price formed part of a five-night holiday package that included luxury accommodation and exclusive access.
A very limited number of Dubai residents were able to secure ground-level views by booking Royal Beach tables at Dh2,500 per person, with a five-guest minimum. Everyone else watched online, with more than 50 cameras capturing the band’s final-year theatrics for a global live-stream audience.
