The 'All of Me' singer will perform at Egypt's Playa North Coast in July. AFP
The 'All of Me' singer will perform at Egypt's Playa North Coast in July. AFP
The 'All of Me' singer will perform at Egypt's Playa North Coast in July. AFP
The 'All of Me' singer will perform at Egypt's Playa North Coast in July. AFP

John Legend to perform in Egypt for the first time


Evelyn Lau
  • English
  • Arabic

John Legend will take the stage in Egypt this summer.

The Green Light singer will perform at Playa resort, a lifestyle destination with villas and sandy beaches on Egypt’s North Coast, on July 22. Early bird tickets for the show — which will be his first in the country — have sold out.

Legend is an EGOT winner, having won all the major entertainment awards — the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards — during his career. He is most known for his soulful R&B ballads such as Ordinary People, All of Me and Love Me Now.

In 2020, the hitmaker released his seventh album, Bigger Love.

“The album was written before the world locked down because of the coronavirus and before people were marching in the streets in protest here in the US,” he said previously during an online listening session for the album.

“But hopefully it can speak to people in this moment of turmoil, uncertainty and fear and can lift them, bring them some love and some joy.”

It later went on to win the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album.

In 2020, Legend performed at Dubai's Coca-Cola Arena as part of the Dubai Shopping Festival, bringing along all the hits from his almost two-decade career.

Legend rolled out all the classics — including the hits Used to Love U, Stay With You and Ordinary People from his 2004 Grammy Award-winning debut album, Get Lifted. There were plenty of other crowd-pleasers, from Tonight (Best You Ever Had) to Penthouse Floor and Green Light, a favourite from his 2008 studio album Evolver.

"Suave, smooth and endlessly uplifting, Legend has clearly developed a tried-and-tested formula that works. He didn’t stray too far from it last night, but, still, much love," wrote The National in a review of the gig.

Tickets for the concert in Playa North Coast start at 1500 Egyptian pounds ($81).

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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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Euro 2020

Group A: Italy, Switzerland, Wales, Turkey 

Group B: Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Finland

Group C: Netherlands, Ukraine, Austria, 
Georgia/Kosovo/Belarus/North Macedonia

Group D: England, Croatia, Czech Republic, 
Scotland/Israel/Norway/Serbia

Group E: Spain, Poland, Sweden, 
N.Ireland/Bosnia/Slovakia/Ireland

Group F: Germany, France, Portugal, 
Iceland/Romania/Bulgaria/Hungary

Omar Yabroudi's factfile

Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah

Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University

2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship

2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy

2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment

2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment

2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager

 

 

 

 

Updated: April 21, 2022, 10:54 AM