by ALE AL ZADJALI
Anyone that knows me knows how much I love concerts, especially POP concerts and most importantly I really don’t dislike Katy Perry & Maluma. That’s why when I was sitting at work on another Tuesday and I decided to take a minute to scroll through the internet and suddenly see that Katy Perry, Maluma, Maroon 5, Cheb Khaled and many other acts were all announced to be performing in Qatar as part of the first Qatar Live! concert experience by Qatar Airways, in celebration of the FIFA Club World Cup. I was excited; we can now officially add Doha as a concert destination in the GCC!
It took me a minute now as concerts in Qatar are not exactly the norm. You don’t have them every weekend. They’re very similar to what we have here in Oman but that’s not to say that we’ve had any, I mean we did have Ed Sheeran once, however, we don’t get the big productions like some of the neighbouring countries. I just knew that there has to be a way where I am on a plane and on my way to Doha. so I did just that, with Qatar Airways.
We landed on a Saturday, just before the Katy Perry concert, and made my way to the Al Messila Resort & Spa. On Sunday, we hopped on a bus and made our way to the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre, and into the hall and got to see a set that looks like it was done exclusively for Qatar. It was neon, bright and it was quintessential Katy Perry. The perfect mix for the first big-name show in Qatar.
Katy Perry came out just after 9pm and put on a fabulous 1-hour and a half show of all the hits and what I really liked was I got to see crowds of different ages all getting into the songs, which was so refreshing to see because I thought is not exactly where I would have ever thought? You had locals, expatriates and even folks like me who travelled all the way from Oman for the show, feeling the full California Girls fantasy…. Whatever that is.
The day after we had the Maluma concert. Now, Maluma is the show that I thought was actually risky because I thought that no one’s going to sing along to his Spanish songs. I thought it was a weird choice to book my ticket for his concert but it worked out as the concert was packed and Maluma got people singing along, and if you didn’t know the lyrics you at least knew what the song was and you jumped up and down. He had fun. I’m here for his full intro, smoke machines and the lasers that really did the work alongside him during that night. The other thing I liked was his way of showing respect for the country he’s performing in, in which his dancers were not wearing their typical costumes and various parts of the typical show were also altered to fit Qatar, so that was refreshing to see him respect the country he’s optionally performing in.
Katy Perry & Maluma we’re certainly not the only artists that had shows during this celebration, Maroon 5 joined them to represent international acts but regional and local acts like Yara, Fahad Al Kubaisi, Cheb Khaled and more also performed in the capital! I, for one, look forward to more shows as the start was spectacular.
