Tonight's Grammy Awards were meant to celebrate the reformation of musical legends.
Instead, while the original Beach Boys line-up came back to perform for their 50th anniversary, the ceremonyis to be held in the dark shadow of the sudden death of a musical legend in her own right.
On Saturday afternoon, R&B soul diva Whitney Houston, 48, was found dead in the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. At press time, no statement had been released regarding the cause of death.
Houston was meant to be performing a few hours later at a pre-ceremony gala hosted by the record producer and music industry heavyweight Clive Davis. In his statement to the press, the emotional music mogul expressed Houston's excitement at being part of the event and confirmed the party would continue, as "simply put, Whitney would have wanted the music to go on".
One can argue that Houston's death was more shocking to the music world than the tragic demise of Amy Winehouse. While the latter's career was spiralling out of control, Houston's career finally seemed - although slowly - to be getting back on track.
She seemed to have recovered from her ill-fated 2010 world tour, which was met with derision from press and fans who lambasted her gaunt appearance and her inability to finish her songs without taking rest breaks.
Houston was also set to meet with The X Factor's Simon Cowell to talk about appearing as a judge on the hit show. It would have been a great fit; Houston's feisty yet compassionate persona would have endeared her to the masses and a Jennifer Lopez-style comeback could have been in the cards.
Her under-appreciated acting chops were also set to return in the remake musical drama Sparkle, which will premiere in August. Starring alongside Jordin Sparks, the film is loosely based on The Supremes and follows a young, all-sisters group as they attempt to navigate the pitfalls of fame. Houston will portray the sisters' protective mother.
Show business is full of ironies like that.
For a star so full of God-given talent - and Houston always viewed her booming vibrato as a divine gift - it was frustrating to watch her wilfully waste it in her final years.
Gospel-trained, Houston first tasted the stage at the age of 11 as part of her church choir in New Jersey. It was an inevitable fate considering the musical luminaries in her family. Her mother was gospel star Cissy Houston, a cousin of Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.
After cutting her teeth by performing alongside her mother during her solo concerts, Houston branched off on her own, lending her booming pipes as back-up vocalist for Chaka Khan's I'm Every Woman (which Houston later turned into a solo hit), as well as singing with Lou Rawls and Jermaine Jackson.
However, it was Clive Davis, then president of Aritsa Records, who saw something more than a willowy, efficient session singer in her.
Personally supervising Houston's debut album, Davis introduced her as a 21-year-old to the masses with her self-titled record.
Unlike now, this was a time when an artist was allowed to develop slowly. The album gradually began to catch public attention, until a year later it finally topped the charts for 14 weeks, courtesy of three number one singles, including the signature ballad, the Grammy-winning Saving All My Love for You.
From then on, she all but dominated the pop landscape, releasing seven albums and breaking records set by The Beatles and the Bee Gees by releasing seven number one singles in a row. She also went on to scoop six Grammys and become the highest paid black entertainer at the time.
She reached her peak with the 1992 film The Bodyguard, alongside Kevin Costner. Her critically acclaimed performance as a feisty diva not only propelled the film and accompanying soundtrack to the top of the charts, but also acted as a template for future R&B and hip-hop performers who viewed film as a promising extension of their brand.
Her musical career, however, seemed to screech to a halt after she married Bobby Brown.
Despite the drug-fuelled dramas of their marriage and eventual divorce, Houston still managed to display some of her talent - although fleetingly - in the four albums since. The widely panned world tour promoting Houston's last album, I Look to You, was a welcome return to form.
Although the songs were devoid of Houston's signature high notes, her assured vocal prowess promised better things to come.
Sadly, we will never know if that promise would have been kept.
sasaeed@thenational.ae
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Tales of Yusuf Tadros
Adel Esmat (translated by Mandy McClure)
Hoopoe
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
- The introduction of tariffs could hinder the US's clean energy initiatives by raising input costs for materials like nickel
- US domestic suppliers might benefit from higher prices, but overall oil consumption is expected to decrease due to elevated costs
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.”
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
