What we learnt from Dubai Music Week

As the dust settles on three days of concerts and events at Dubai Music Week, we reflect on nine things we learnt.

Jason Derulo performing at Dubai Music Week. Cedric Ribeiro / Getty Images

Same time next year?

First, the good news: Dubai Music Week will be back next year. And hopefully every year until 2020, too, with a five-year plan being hatched to improve and broaden the event moving forward, according to Live Nation’s managing director, James Craven, who says his inspiration is Texas’s trendsetting South By Southwest.

“We have a vision,” he told us. “This is a new event, and it needs to grow and evolve, but in five years’ time I’d like to see a full-blown industry conference. We are in a gifted position in Dubai to be the hub for music in the region.”

It was a rather slow start

The second Dubai Music Week began with a whimper, not a growl. The scheduled 1,000-capacity “official opening” ceremony – a live Q&A with headliner Jason Derulo on Wednesday – simply didn’t take place.

When we asked about it, Derulo was flummoxed. “To be honest, I don’t know what happened, I have no idea,” he said. An “unforeseen scheduling conflict” was the official line.

“We appreciate all of the fans and look forward to their continued support for Dubai Music Week,” Live Nation said.

But Derulo’s slick stagecraft saved the day

By Wednesday evening, things were firing on all cylinders. Fronting a live band in the UAE for the first time, Derulo ticked all the boxes for an inclusive event intro. The guy can definitely dance. He can seriously sing. And he’s more than a little proud of his bulging biceps. It was the whole package. He’s so slick, watching Derulo onstage feels a bit like viewing one big, long music video.

Does Dave Grohl dislike the Middle East?

Promoters were put on the spot when a fan asked whether persistent rumours that the Foo Fighters are coming to town might ever come true – and let slip the problem was down to the band’s preconceptions of the region.

“I used to work closely with the band, and it’s been a challenge because of the mentality of someone in the band concerning the Middle East,” said Mike Galt, Live Nation’s talent manager, speaking at Thursday’s Biz Talks panel. “The way the media portrays the Middle East in the United States is a problem.”

The UAE loves Ellie

Too often, the greatest criticism of UAE concertgoers is that they don’t pay enough attention, happy to chat noisily until a song they recognise starts. This is why the outpouring of emotion that greeted Ellie Goulding’s show on Thursday was a joy to behold – after only a few songs, the crowd were chanting the singer’s name in their thousands. Goulding seemed genuinely touched. “I do a lot of shows,” she told the rapt audience, “and it really makes a difference when you’re performing to people who are really engaged.”

An engaged crowd? In Dubai? Blimey.

Jared up close and personal

Before Jared Leto’s live Q&A on Friday, fans were given strict instructions: no pictures, no “personal or private” questions, and absolutely no “inappropriate touching”.

But rocking up in a retro rainbow T-shirt and white trousers, all the rules were quickly thrown out the window the minute Leto invited a cute young girl to share the tiny sofa with him, for half an hour. There were more than a few jealous older fans in the audience.

“I would love to do a special tour of the Middle East and make a film about it – that would be awesome,” Leto said later. “When we were in Abu Dhabi, that was incredible; the energy and passion was magical.”

And the winner is...

A six-month talent search seeking a local support act to open for Thirty Seconds to Mars finally wound up with... nothing to show for it.

Launched in March, the #MARSBattleoftheBands contest was won by Dubai-based singer-songwriter Seb Heart, who was reportedly out of town and couldn’t make the gig.

That was good news for the replacement support act, though – perennial openers Juliana Down played an excellent, epic set lasting about an hour, mixing promising new material with older, battle-worn anthems.

More big gigs at Yas this year

It was strange to get the lowdown on Abu Dhabi gig news in Dubai, but when we bumped into Flash’s head honcho Alexis Dijksterhuis he promised “at least one” more big Yas Island show before the year is out.

“We’ve got lots of interesting things already planned for early 2016,” added Dijksterhuis, the promoter’s vice president of strategic planning and new business.

It’s all about social media

More than ever, Dubai Music Week proved what an expansive role social media plays in an artist’s self-promotion, with all three headliners virtually embracing the UAE.

Ellie Goulding posted a beachside shot on Instagram while soaking up some pre-show rays.

Jason Derulo got in the mood with an intimate, to-camera Snapchat post.

But Jared Leto trumped them both by suddenly popping up in the middle of the crowd for an impromptu solo acoustic set during the Thirty Seconds to Mars gig – and filming an Instagram singalong he posted right there and then. Nice touch.