When discerning music selectors first put together two turntables to play the hits of the day way back in the 1940s, it’s probably fair to say they weren’t envisaging how they would be laying the foundations for a sometime hotel-chain heiress to sully the good name of DJing 70 years later.
Hilton was previously in Abu Dhabi last year to open the Legends nightclub. The stakes were raised this time around with a room jam-packed full of revellers for one of the hot Friday night tickets following The Chemical Brothers – a tough act to follow given the British duo had just given a masterclass in crowd-moving across Yas Island at du Arena.
Various accusations have been thrown at Hilton during her short and not especially sweet DJ career – from snooty peers bemoaning her lack of “paying dues” through to very real concerns about whether she is actually even doing anything in the booth that constitutes actual DJing. It was impossible to verify the latter from our vantage point during her VIP Room pop-up club set, although a visibly glowing Apple logo did at least suggest her MacBook was turned on. She twiddled enough mixer knobs to pay lip service to doing more than clicking play on an iTunes playlist, too.
Hilton's musical selections were actually pretty spot-on for the occasion – and a marked improvement on the forgettable club fodder spilling from the speakers before she appeared in a fittingly attention-grabbing spot in the middle of club, clad in a black-dress-and-sunglasses combo best described as "spangly". She dusted off a stack of hedonistic party hits from Chuckie and LMFAO's Let the Bass Kick in Miami to Icona Pop and Charli XCX's I Love It and a refix of The Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling. Say what you will, but it was an overwhelmingly positive playlist. We could probably have survived without a few screechy between-track rambles that were largely incomprehensible.
But there was no denying that the VIP Room’s vibe was successfully transplanted down the E11 – regardless of largely glitzy clientele that you would run over broken glass to avoid, the Dubai staple is nothing less than a proper nightclub that shows plenty of lesser UAE contemporaries the way to do it.
VIP Room at Cipriani continues on Saturday with a sold-out show from Drake and on Sunday with its closing Celebrity Bash hosted by Drake. bookings@viproom-dubai.com
aworkman@thenational.ae
