Before Lana Del Rey even steps foot on the du Arena stage tonight, it is important to note that she has already won.
The fact she is able to have a sky-rocketing career and adoring fan base is testament to an under-appreciated mental resilience that has kept her going despite the odds.
If it wasn’t for those reserves, she would have pulled the pin on her career a long time ago. And who would blame her? Over the space of a year, she went from being hailed as the next best thing to being derided by everyone from critics to celebrities for being an imposter.
And what was Del Rey’s high crime? She wanted to reinvent herself.
The period in question was 2012, when Del Rey – born Elizabeth Grant – announced herself to the world as a seductive chanteuse with smouldering torch song Born to Die.
Slick and with a Tarantino-esque level of appreciation for all things vintage, the song and vibe evoked an otherworldly existence where pain and pleasure are blurred and the insights that regret begets is more worthwhile than the happiness of romance.
The song was a viral sensation and by the time the follow-up single,Video Games, was released, Del Rey was the biggest cult pop act on the planet, dubbed the "gangster Nancy Sinatra."
With that acclaim came extra scrutiny into a past that Del Rey attempted to erase – literally.
Born to wealthy parents in Manhattan, New York, Del Rey first got her start as a standard pop artist with a reportedly finished album under the name Lizzy Grant. The music and associated social media channels were scrubbed off the internet not long before she emerged in her new guise as Lana Del Rey. As the story goes, her whole brooding persona was cooked up in some boardroom and Del Rey was not so much the "bad girl" she sang about in Video Games.
The backlash was fierce: the music press slammed her for being unauthentic, while actress Juliette Lewis failed to see the irony in criticising her performance on Saturday Night Live as fake.
The hysteria surrounding Del Rey has to go down as one of the low points in popular culture.
Not only was this occurring while a slew of talent shows were constantly churning out singers and TV-orchestrated bands such as One Direction, but it also fails to appreciate pop music history.
The term “authenticity” in pop music is not so much an anathema but an inverse proposition. The most authentic impulse of a pop artist is to try new things. If we didn’t value this, then we would have been denied a whole range of legendary artists from David Bowie and Madonna to Lady Gaga and Cat Stevens.
And in today’s digital age, reinvention is not so much an opportunity to refresh creatively, but a vital aspect in surviving a landscape made even more cut-throat by the short attention spans of online music listeners. If you stay in the same lane for too long, then the so-called fans will eventually abandon you.
This is something that Taylor Swift understood. Over the space of decade she successfully moved from sweet country music crooner to adventurous singer-songwriter to pop queen, and who knows what next?
It is surely that knowledge that allowed Del Rey to keep her head down and push through the hate and release quality albums that forced the mob to re-assess their views.
That process has come to fruition this year with her sixth album, Norman (expletive) Rockwell! – which finds her blending more psychedelic rock with her signature dark balladry – not only receiving some of the best reviews of her career, but being nominated for the prestigious Album of the Year at next year's Grammy Awards.
Therefore, the best advice to give concertgoers tonight is to enjoy the moment. Because the next time she hopefully returns, we don't know which version of Del Rey or Lizzie Grant we are going to get.
Lana Del Rey performs tonight at du Arena, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. Doors open from 5pm. To attend the after-race concerts, you need to have a ticket for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Tickets are available online from Yas Marina Circuit.
Need to know
The flights: Flydubai flies from Dubai to Kilimanjaro airport via Dar es Salaam from Dh1,619 return including taxes. The trip takes 8 hours.
The trek: Make sure that whatever tour company you select to climb Kilimanjaro, that it is a reputable one. The way to climb successfully would be with experienced guides and porters, from a company committed to quality, safety and an ethical approach to the mountain and its staff. Sonia Nazareth booked a VIP package through Safari Africa. The tour works out to $4,775 (Dh17,538) per person, based on a 4-person booking scheme, for 9 nights on the mountain (including one night before and after the trek at Arusha). The price includes all meals, a head guide, an assistant guide for every 2 trekkers, porters to carry the luggage, a cook and kitchen staff, a dining and mess tent, a sleeping tent set up for 2 persons, a chemical toilet and park entrance fees. The tiny ration of heated water provided for our bath in our makeshift private bathroom stall was the greatest luxury. A standard package, also based on a 4-person booking, works out to $3,050 (Dh11,202) per person.
When to go: You can climb Kili at any time of year, but the best months to ascend are January-February and September-October. Also good are July and August, if you’re tolerant of the colder weather that winter brings.
Do not underestimate the importance of kit. Even if you’re travelling at a relatively pleasant time, be geared up for the cold and the rain.
The biog
Favourite Quote: “Real victories are those that protect human life, not those that result from its destruction emerge from its ashes,” by The late king Hussain of Jordan.
Favourite Hobby: Writing and cooking
Favourite Book: The Prophet by Gibran Khalil Gibran
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Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
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How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
OIL PLEDGE
At the start of Russia's invasion, IEA member countries held 1.5 billion barrels in public reserves and about 575 million barrels under obligations with industry, according to the agency's website. The two collective actions of the IEA this year of 62.7 million barrels, which was agreed on March 1, and this week's 120 million barrels amount to 9 per cent of total emergency reserves, it added.
If you go
The flights
There are various ways of getting to the southern Serengeti in Tanzania from the UAE. The exact route and airstrip depends on your overall trip itinerary and which camp you’re staying at.
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Kilimanjaro International Airport from Dh1,350 return, including taxes; this can be followed by a short flight from Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti with Coastal Aviation from about US$700 (Dh2,500) return, including taxes. Kenya Airways, Emirates and Etihad offer flights via Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
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.”
