We all know Celine Dion, or at least think we do. The slender singer with the huge voice emerged in the 1980s, and signed with Canadian music impresario Rene Angelil when she was just 12 years old. She released nine albums in her native language, French, winning numerous awards while still a teenager, and went on to sing at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Montreal Olympics. In 1988, she won the Eurovision Song Contest, and by the time she recorded her first album in English, entitled Unison, in 1990, Celine Dion was already a superstar.
In 1994, despite a 26-year age gap, Dion declared her love for her manager Angelil, and their wedding ceremony was broadcast live on Canadian television.
Dion is best-known for the song My Heart Will Go On from the 1997 film Titanic, which smashed box-office records despite everyone knowing the ending (spoiler alert: the ship sinks). The single sold 18 million copies. When invited to sing at the Oscars ceremony in 1998, Dion arrived wearing the film's famed blue diamond necklace.
At the Oscars a year later, Dion showed her love of daring fashion when she donned a white John Galliano tuxedo worn back to front. Now a backless top, it was a bold statement, but one the audience did not take to. As the only woman not in a gown, Dion was panned; and she recently confessed in an interview that the look was too avant-garde for the time, adding: "If I would do this today, it would work."
In 2002, Dion signed up for an unheard of 600-show residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which would see her perform five nights a week. As the industry tutted and predicted it would finish her career, the singer tasked former Cirque du Soleil theatre director Franco Dragone with creating a new stage concept involving song, performance art and state-of-the-art technology, while Dion herself focused on seven costume changes, starting in shimmering minidresses, and ending in a full-length column dress split to the hip. Far from ending her career, Las Vegas proved so successful that the songstress remained in residence until last month.
By 2014, Dion had raised her fashion game again, wearing Armani Prive and Schiaparelli haute couture on stage, cementing her position front and centre at every important fashion show. A valued and important client, Dion made bolder and bolder choices, stepping out in Versace, Elie Saab, Yves Saint Laurent and even Iris Van Herpen, who all indulged her fearless taste.
In 2016, she lost both her brother and husband to cancer within two days of each other, and the world watched her all too human struggle, as she buried her partner of nearly 20 years, while trying to protect their three young children. Remarkably, Dion returned to her Las Vegas residency just a month later, and in what can only be described as embracing the next chapter of her life, hired stylist Law Roach, a self-titled “image architect”. Their meeting has become the stuff of legend, when, having admired the clothes worn by actress Zendaya, Dion took to Google to find who dressed her. Roach later admitted that when Dion called, his first words to the pop legend were: “Celine, who?”
A few weeks later, Dion arrived at Paris Haute Couture Week dressed in Saint Laurent skinny jeans, and an oversized Vetements hoodie, which was pulled from the archive especially for her. The hoodie was emblazoned with a young Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio from Titanic, a witty nod that made her the darling of the fashion pack. At the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, Dion wore Stephane Rolland haute couture, with magnificent, puffed shoulders, and then stepped out in a ceaseless parade of cutting-edge fashion, which included looks by Balmain, Maison Rabih Kayrouz and Givenchy.
Earlier this month, at a Paris Haute Couture show, Dion elevated her status to full-blown fashion maestro by wearing a Vetements blazer and an "I heart Paris Hilton" T-shirt from the spring / summer 2020 collection, which was shown less than a week earlier. And around her neck? The blue diamond necklace from Titanic.
Celine Dion’s style, it seems, will go on and on.
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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.”
Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history
Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)
Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.
Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)
A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.
Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)
Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.
Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)
Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.
