The Black Eyed Peas have the UAE in their sights as a destination on their next world tour. Speaking exclusively to The National before his solo gig at The Singapore F1 after-party The Podium Lounge, BEP member Taboo said a UAE show is in the works as part of the group's latest global jaunt in support of their upcoming album Masters of the Sun, which is out on October 12 and will see them return to their hip hop roots.
The 43-year-old rapper and acrobatic dancer, real name Jaime Gomez, said the UAE show will happen as part of the Asian leg of the tour in 2019.
The show will mark the BEP’s first public performance in the UAE after having performed a private gig at Dubai’s Airport Expo in 2005. Since then, different members of the group toured the UAE sporadically for club sets in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“I always have a fun time there and we want to bring our shows to either Abu Dhabi or Dubai. We have a lot of fans there and we love performing there,” he says. “We will do that as part of our run of shows around Asia. We will do Australia and then Asia for some shows and then head your way.”
Black Eyed Peas's upcoming shows mark their first international tour in seven years, while the new album Masters of the Sun is their long-awaited follow up to 2010's The Beginning. The group recently released the evocative new single Street Living.
A lot of professional and personal developments happen in between; the group returned to their original trio format after singer Fergie left the group, while Taboo is now cancer free after undergoing a gruelling 12-week bout of chemotherapy treatment after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in June 2014.
“It definitely changed my perspective about how I live my life now,” he said. “I don’t get caught up in the small things anymore because I know that life is short. Money and fame means nothing to me anymore as well as people’s thoughts and expectations. I realised that as long as myself and my family are good, nothing else really matters.”
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