There’s a high-concept idea behind Alicia Keys new album, Keys, and it’s all about contrast and variation. The first half, dubbed Originals, is a stripped-back collection of songs showcasing Keys at her most intimate, with her voice and much-celebrated piano work at the forefront. The second, Unlocked, offers a whole new perspective on those same songs, with added beats, loops and lush orchestrations.
Expo 2020 Dubai will have been delighted that Keys chose to celebrate the launch of that album at Al Wasl Plaza, on Friday, and the show certainly demonstrated all of her versatility, making for a hugely impressive but somewhat disjointed show.
It was billed as "Live in 360”, allowing people across the world to witness the show via streaming platforms, where they could pan around the venue from the comfort of their own living rooms; across the stage, into the audience and up to the skies, where gently oscillating purple blobs gave the sense of being imprisoned within a gigantic lava lamp.
The gentle sound of a string quartet provided Keys with an understated entrance, as she swept past the audience in a flowing gown in a golden hand-embroidered bodysuit paired with a tulle cape with intricate patterns by Dubai designer Furne One, who's behind the Amato Couture label.
She sang a heartfelt tribute to one of her favourite artists, urging us all to be the best we can be: “While you standing tall like the Taj Mahal / Be unforgettable / Like Nat King Cole.”
“Let everything go,” she urged us, “and come with me on this journey.”
For the most part, that journey was a slick sashay through a career of more than two decades, with songs such as 2012’s Girl On Fire and 2009’s Un-Thinkable making a strong connection with the Dubai crowd. Keys, either behind the piano or moving slowly around it, was the primary focus throughout; a small band accompanied her fairly unobtrusively, while a barely-visible dance troupe were a somewhat shadowy presence around the circular stage.
The hits came thick and fast, perhaps even too fast; as the lilting reggae of Wasted Energy (from her last album, Alicia) hurriedly segued into the soulful You Don’t Know My Name, you almost got the sense that it was a race to cram in as many recognised tunes as possible for an audience that don’t get to see her perform very often. Her last two visits to the UAE were in 2019 and 2013 respectively.
It certainly provided a perfect primer for anyone unfamiliar with the depth and range of her work, but you occasionally wished for the songs to be explored more fully, to hear the full extent of her keyboard talent and for the band to be used to their full potential.
The presentation of new songs was consistent with the theme of her new album; she played snatches of them as Originals (quieter, piano-led) and then Unlocked (toughened up) and asked the crowd which version they preferred. Perhaps inevitably, the bigger, beatier versions always got the biggest cheers, perhaps prompting Keys to wonder why she’d bothered with the piano-based versions at all?
But in truth, the most breathtaking moments of the show were the more understated ones. For the free-floating Best Of Me, the lighting in the venue became warmer and more inviting, and we became more drawn into her world. The sustained chords and downtempo beats of Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart, from the album The Element Of Freedom, saw her immaculate voice really take off for the first time. And Old Memories, also taken from the new record and played in full, was truly mesmerising; harking back to 1960s soul and doo-wop, the gentle piano arpeggios and stripped-back accompaniment needed no apology or disclaimer, and the crowd rose to it.
A surprising take on Fallin’, her first and perhaps best-known hit, involved the song presented in jazz-trio style, all extemporised drums and piano flourishes. While you can’t really blame Keys for taking liberties with a song she’s probably had to sing at every show she’s done for the last 20 years, you wondered if the crowd might have preferred a more familiar version.
However, the anthemic Empire State Of Mind and No One both truly soared, the crowd lighting up the venue with their smartphones, Keys in her element, and in the cutest of finales, her two small children, Egypt and Genesis, arriving on stage bearing flowers for mum.
On Friday night, Keys demonstrated that it’s not always easy to be an R&B maestro and piano balladeer simultaneously. But whichever one she happens to turn her hand to, she’s still world-class.
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They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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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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What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Brief scores:
Barcelona 3
Pique 38', Messi 51 (pen), Suarez 82'
Rayo Vallecano 1
De Tomas Gomez 24'
Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
