ABU DHABI // George Michael is to stage what he says is the final concert of his career at Abu Dhabi's Zayed Sports City on Dec 1.
The British singer will perform in front of 30,000 fans in what will be his first show in the Middle East.
The concert is a last-minute addition to his 25-date retirement tour, 25 Live, which concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the end of August before an audience of 40,000. It will bring to an end a performing career that has spanned 25 years.
"There will be a few surprises on the night," said a spokeswoman for the organisers. "We can't say what but it will make the night one to remember for everyone."
The 45-year-old singer is coming to Abu Dhabi despite having already announced his retirement.
Reports in the British press claim an offer of £1 million (Dh6m) to come to the emirates persuaded him to perform for one last time.
The spokeswoman said Michael was being brought to the emirates by Live Nation and Flash. Live Nation made headlines last year when the company signed a US$120m (Dh440m) deal to secure all of Madonna's recording and touring rights. The arrangement was billed as the future of the recording industry and made Madonna, who turned 50 in August, the founding artist of the company's Artist Nation division.
mswan@thenational.ae
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The UN General Assembly President in quotes:
YEMEN: “The developments we have seen are promising. We really hope that the parties are going to respect the agreed ceasefire. I think that the sense of really having the political will to have a peace process is vital. There is a little bit of hope and the role that the UN has played is very important.”
PALESTINE: “There is no easy fix. We need to find the political will and comply with the resolutions that we have agreed upon.”
OMAN: “It is a very important country in our system. They have a very important role to play in terms of the balance and peace process of that particular part of the world, in that their position is neutral. That is why it is very important to have a dialogue with the Omani authorities.”
REFORM OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL: “This is complicated and it requires time. It is dependent on the effort that members want to put into the process. It is a process that has been going on for 25 years. That process is slow but the issue is huge. I really hope we will see some progress during my tenure.”
It's Monty Python's Crashing Rocket Circus
To the theme tune of the famous zany British comedy TV show, SpaceX has shown exactly what can go wrong when you try to land a rocket.
The two minute video posted on YouTube is a compilation of crashes and explosion as the company, created by billionaire Elon Musk, refined the technique of reusable space flight.
SpaceX is able to land its rockets on land once they have completed the first stage of their mission, and is able to resuse them multiple times - a first for space flight.
But as the video, How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster, demonstrates, it was a case if you fail, try and try again.