Arab-pop concerts are normally grand affairs held in fancy auditoriums or ballrooms with a tasty buffet on offer.
Fortunately, for its month-long series of concerts, the Dubai Shopping Festival chose an outdoor venue – the Dubai Media City Amphitheatre – and the result was an atmosphere with all the fun and carefree spirit of a music festival.
Thursday’s curtain-raiser – the first of 10 concerts that will run each weekend throughout the month – was a double bill featuring Saber Rebaï and Melhem Zain.
It proved to be a night of two halves as it seemed like only one of the artists showed up.
Lebanese crooner Zain is normally a dependable performer, but he seemed totally adrift on stage, failing to gel with the near-20 piece orchestra and bereft of any onstage presence.
His set began to go awry as early as the second song, Ya Saghiri. He failed to take command of the opening mawal and seemed to be out of tune during the chorus.
In Ya Lail, it was up to the backing band to inject some energy into the set as the string section coaxed melodies both melancholy and cinematic. Zain, on the other hand, stood there marooned. The fact that he was vigorously rubbing his ears suggested he was suffering from a cold.
The good news was that his performance picked up towards the end, with a strong cover of Wadih El Safi's classic nautical folk song, Ya Bahriah.
He left the stage rather sheepishly, perhaps acknowledging it had not been a good night at the office.
Rebaï salvaged the evening with an elegant performance. The 47-year-old Tunisian remains one of the few Arab-pop stars to have his own musical identity, courtesy of his sophisticated songs that freely borrow from classical music, pop and funk.
In what might have been an Arab-concert first, he was joined by two orchestras – the string section and backing vocalists from Egypt and a rhythm section from his homeland, each led by its own conductor.
Explaining the reason for the crowded stage, Rebaï said that he “wanted to prove that borders and politics may sometimes divide us but art will always bring us together”.
Rebaï performed a greatest-hits set, with an early highlight being the catchy tune Heyatak Ya Habibi. In the symphonic Ala Nar, his voice demonstrated its winning blend of sturdiness and sensitivity that continues to appeal to men and women.
But the standout moment of the evening was for the ladies. When Rebaï dropped the classy ballad Ajmal Nissa El Dunya (The Most Beautiful Women in the World), the venue resembled a wedding hall with couples dancing under the midnight sky.
sasaeed@thenational.ae
