A circular centre stage that rotates, with a 360-degree screen overhead, plus beams of fire shooting out of its edges – Ed Sheeran's Dubai concert is as dazzling (and dizzying) as it gets.
About 30,000 attended The Sevens Stadium on Friday evening – throngs of fans from a wide demographic, enamoured by the singer's hit-making virtuosity.
And he did not disappoint. From his contagious energy to the theatrics of the production, Sheeran has seemingly perfected the formula of his Mathematics world tour. He is in Dubai for two nights to show it off, accompanied by opening act Calum Scott, who proved that he's more than just a mere opener. For many in the audience, the entire night was a two-for-one concert.
With his soaring vocals, Scott definitely warmed up the crowd, who sang along to his power ballad You Are The Reason and his defining cover of Dancing On My Own.
The cosiness intensified in the open-air stadium when the British singer became visibly emotional at one point, saying “I've never been more nervous in my life” to a swooning crowd.
From Scott's set, you'd already be made aware of the quality of the production. The sound system, for example, is audibly top-notch – and as it should be, for a major concert at a vast open-air venue, one without the acoustics advantage of a closed hall. Also, it's Sheeran, who is by all accounts a true-blue musician first before anything else, and he wouldn't have allowed a clunky set-up.
Immediately, in his first of 26 songs, Tides, the British singer-songwriter's passion for live performance is palpable. Donning a guitar and running around the circular stage, Sheeran's energy fired up the audience, while literal flames caught people a bit off guard when they started flaring by the second song Blow.
The two-and-a-half-hour set list is a good collection of his discography. A few songs come from his latest album Subtract, while many are lifted from his earlier records. When he played The A Team, Sheeran was candid in explaining how it was the song that ultimately launched his career.
Sheeran's charm on stage is also thanks to his signature live looping. Instead of a band, he creates all of the sounds on stage, deftly layering them on top of each of other using a looper. This is why even when there seems to be a lot going on, with the rotating platform and the overhead screen, the stage is still aptly bare, making the audience focus on him.
He used the pedal system in most of the songs, but there were also tracks that needed the support of other live instrumentalists, such as during Beautiful People, I Don't Care and Galway Girl, where he invited a violinist to join him on stage.
Sheeran's career is punctuated with many chart-toppers, and he knows it. Before singing his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud, for instance, he pre-empted people's urge to sing along. And people did sing along, also in the case of Perfect (2017), Photograph (2014) and Love Yourself (2015), which he wrote for fellow pop artist Justin Bieber.
The singer broke away from his set list to perform a surprise number, saying how he “really likes the atmosphere” and felt the song needed to be performed, Tenerife Sea, part of his Multiply album in 2014.
Sheeran wrapped up with a few more of his chart-topping songs – to audiences who didn't mind standing for over three hours, and still, with full energy, singing along Shape of You and Bad Habits as the concert came to a close. Of course, a small fireworks display had to conclude the evening.
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
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Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The five pillars of Islam
Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:
1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
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The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
Defined benefit and defined contribution schemes explained
Defined Benefit Plan (DB)
A defined benefit plan is where the benefit is defined by a formula, typically length of service to and salary at date of leaving.
Defined Contribution Plan (DC)
A defined contribution plan is where the benefit depends on the amount of money put into the plan for an employee, and how much investment return is earned on those contributions.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Honeymoonish
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Farasan Boat: 128km Away from Anchorage
Director: Mowaffaq Alobaid
Stars: Abdulaziz Almadhi, Mohammed Al Akkasi, Ali Al Suhaibani
Rating: 4/5
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The%20specs
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Shubh Mangal Saavdhan
Directed by: RS Prasanna
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar
MATCH INFO
Serie A
Juventus v Fiorentina, Saturday, 8pm (UAE)
Match is on BeIN Sports
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Miss Granny
Director: Joyce Bernal
Starring: Sarah Geronimo, James Reid, Xian Lim, Nova Villa
3/5
(Tagalog with Eng/Ar subtitles)
Gully Boy
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Producer: Excel Entertainment & Tiger Baby
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi
Rating: 4/5 stars
How it works
A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank
Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night
The charge is stored inside a battery
The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode
A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes
This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode
When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again
The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge
No limit on how many times you can charge