Next time a big musical act rolls into town, a certain group of local singers won’t be able to stop wondering if they’ll be getting a call to back them up on stage.
After being asked to perform with Andrea Bocelli, Susan Boyle and, most recently, The Rolling Stones, the Al Khubairat Singers are becoming the go-to Abu Dhabi choir when big stars needs a big vocal sound.
They were thrilled to be asked to sing with the Britain’s Got Talent reality-show heroine Susan Boyle last December, but were left disappointed when the concert was cancelled.
Last March, Karen Minkkinen Page, a music teacher at Raha International School, was part of the choir invited to sing with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli at du Arena.
“It was probably the most exciting musical event of my four years living and singing here,” she says.
The Al Khubairat Singers are a community choir run by Jonathan Lyall, the head of the instrumental music department at Al Khubairat School. They rehearse for two hours every Sunday evening at the school.
“We’ve performed classical, jazz, rock – our singers are versatile and happy to perform with anyone who comes to town,” says Lyall.
Lyall and his wife, Kate Denton, who are both from Britain, are moving to Singapore in August. He is yet to choose a replacement to lead the choir he founded seven years ago. He helped the singers to prepare for the Rolling Stones performance, but couldn’t be there in person.
“It came to us in an email, quite randomly, saying The Rolling Stones needed a choir,” he says. “I got the biggest gig ever – but I couldn’t make it as I had a school music trip in Beijing on the same day. I was gutted I couldn’t be there.”
The 35 members of the choir range in age from those in their 20s to their 60s, but because the Stones required a younger mix, Lyall roped in nine students from the school who were 18. In the end there were 23 singers for the gig. He helped the group rehearse You Can’t Always Get What You Want, one of the Stones’ most popular tunes, before leaving fellow music teacher Denton in charge.
Denton admits she got last-minute nerves when she saw the size of du Arena, where 30,000 fans had gathered. “We had never sung or played to such a massive crowd before.
“The audience was amazing. Mick Jagger got them to join in with the choruses, so there was lots of screaming and shouting.
“For the students who sang, of course the Stones are not their generation, but they were quite overwhelmed and really humble about being given such an opportunity.”
One of those A-Level students, Joe Frost, says: “During the rehearsal, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards gave us a hearty welcome and commended us for reacting normally to their presence.
“The amount of effort they go through to fluidise their tunes is more than enough to respect their art. If you closed your eyes during their performance you would think they were in their early 20s.”
Ashley Moyles, 30, a Canadian teacher, has long been a Stones fan and had a ticket for the show – not realising she would end up on stage.“It wasn’t real until we saw them rehearsing. I was shaking with excitement. Everyone was giving off that really great energy.
“Mick used to be my favourite. But now I have a real strong appreciation for Ronnie. He wore this fantastic bright-pink jacket for the soundcheck and sparkly shoes which he kept on throughout the night. I thought he looked so cool. He could even light a cigarette, smoke it and carry on playing at the same time.
“It’s great to think there’s still potential to sing with other big-name singers.”
For their next collaboration, the Al Khubairat Singers will be joined by the UAE Symphony Orchestra to perform sections of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff at the Abu Dhabi National Theatre on April 25. They will perform the same piece with the Morgan State University Choir on May 27 at Al Khubairat School.
artslife@thenational.ae
Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
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TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier
UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)
1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0
Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
EXPATS
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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Company profile
Name: Tratok Portal
Founded: 2017
Based: UAE
Sector: Travel & tourism
Size: 36 employees
Funding: Privately funded
On racial profiling at airports
