Didja go to Stevie Wonder’s concert in Abu Dhabi?

If you didn’t, then you missed out on a lot (read: What the hell is wrong with you? I cannot understand how someone can know that Stevie Wonder is going to perform in Abu Dhabi and not go. It just does not make sense to me. And it’s not about whether you’re not into his music or not. IT’S STEVIE WONDER DAMMIT.) I knew that Stevie Wonder was performing in Abu Dhabi way before his ads were placed between every show on OSN. I visit timeoutdubai.com (as well as Abu Dhabi) often just to see who’s performing where and when. Ever since I knew Mr. Wonder was coming over, I was singing his songs in the car, humming them to myself at work and whispering them as I walked down the aisles of the supermarket. Everywhere.

If you ever plan to attend a concert in Abu Dhabi, I would do a one-nighter i.e. arrive, have dinner, go to the concert, go back to the hotel, sleep and wake up the next day to catch your flight back home. We stayed at the Yas Island Hotel which is the main hotel in Yas Island. I want to say that Yas Island is in Abu Dhabi but I was told that it is not associated with Abu Dhabi (one taxi driver said that Abu Dhabi is actually thirty minutes from Yas Island). The hotel itself is nice. The good part was that my husband stayed in a suite in the main tower (if you ever go to Yas Hotel, always try to get a room in the main tower otherwise you'll be going in and out of elevators and over and through floors to get to your room). The not so good part was the average quality of service and the amount of people in the hotel, but I guess they were there for the concert so that's all right. Anyway where was I? Yeah. So we had a fantastic dinner at Cipriani. The service and food was excellent. If you ever go there, you have to get the Bolognese with Pappardelle. It’s perfection.

Right after I finished my dinner, I got up from the table and rushed back to the hotel to get into my “concert attire” which was basically jeans, my comfy flats, a shirt and jacket. By the time I met up with my husband and our group of friends, I literally bounced toward them. I was on cloud nine. I was turning into the person everyone hates because of their annoying chirpiness that really makes you want to slap their excitement away. Fortunately, my chirpiness was reciprocated by another ecstatic girl in our group. While the guys were content standing on the far left side of the area (the concert was held in an open area), both of us girls made our way into the crowd until we were ten rows away from Stevie himself. We sang all the songs and cheered him on until our voices went from shrill to hoarse. It was wonderful. His timely sense of humor was relevant and added onto the fact of him being a great performer. Plus, I was secretly happy that his voice did not change. My aunt went to a Bob Dylan concert in London a few years ago. I remember her husband’s disappointment, “He does not sound the same at all!” But Stevie’s voice is still incredible.

For those who did not attend the concert, you can look at the pictures below and enjoy Mr. Wonder’s music. What’s weird is that I am still excited as I’m typing this. Yay!

















Some of the songs that Stevie Wonder performed this weekend
Download MP3s...
Higher Ground

Sir Duke

Happy Birthday

Living for the City

I Just Called to Say I Love You

My Cherie Amour

Superstition

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours

Don't You Worry About a Thing

at 8:30 AM