A new series of hologram concerts of well-known singers and musicians will take place in Dubai twice a week in Al Habtoor City Theatre, complete with plenty of special effects.
Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment and hologram entertainment production agency New Dimension Productions are launching Dubai Hologram Universe at the same venue as the long-running stage show La Perle.
The first show will take place during the last week of Dubai Shopping Festival, which ends on January 30. It will bring Abdel Halim Hafez back to life in hologram format, as his projection performs on stage accompanied by live performers and musicians.
See photos of an Abdel Halim Hafez hologram concert at Dubai Opera:
During the 90-minute production, the audience can expect to hear some of Hafez’s most famous romantic songs.
Hafez, who died in 1977 aged 47, was a man with many monikers. The Egyptian singer was known as the King of Music, Son of the Nile and even the Voice of the People. Some of his most famous songs include Ahwak, Abo Oyoun Garee'a and Ya Alby Ya Khaly.
The series will also feature gigs by Umm Kulthum, Warda Al Jazairia, Frank Sinatra and more.
“We are delighted to partner with NDP in launching such an innovative initiative as the Dubai Hologram Universe that will turn the spotlight on legendary music icons through hologram technology,” said Ahmed Alkhaja, chief executive of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment.
Hasan M Hina, founder and executive producer and director of New Dimension Productions, said the move "marks the first step to achieving our long-term strategy to position Dubai as the capital of hologram entertainment”.
Hina previously told The National he believes holograms are the future of the global entertainment industry. "It's going to help us break boundaries in that we are bringing people from the past to people in the present to create new visions for the future.”
Details on where to buy tickets and how much they will be are yet to be announced.
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
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.
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
