Sting to perform in Abu Dhabi in January

British musician Sting will bring his My Songs tour to Abu Dhabi next year.

The former Police frontman will perform at Etihad Arena on Yas Island on January 27, organisers Live Nation announced on Monday.

He will be accompanied by an electric, rock ensemble with special guest Joe Sumner, a singer-songwriter and bassist for rock band Fiction Plane.

Tickets will go on sale from Friday at noon on Live Nation's Middle East website.

Sting, real name Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, is no stranger to the UAE, having performed at least four times in the Emirates before.

His UAE debut was at Dubai Tennis Stadium in 2001.

In 2013, Sting performed at Abu Dhabi's du Arena, a concert that “triumphantly hit the right notes”, wrote The National's Saeed Saeed at the time.

“Not pushing any new projects requiring symphony orchestras or a troupe of lute players, the musician's latest UAE jaunt was a greatest-hits affair celebrating a career that has spanned 25 years,” wrote Saeed.

Sting told The National about his love of Arab culture and music in 2015.

“Arab culture is just very exciting,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for what it has given the world in terms of music, art and philosophy, so it is always a great honour to come and entertain that culture.”

He cemented himself as a much-loved figure in the region with the 1999 global hit Desert Rose, his Grammy Award-winning collaboration with Algerian Rai artist Cheb Mami. The song not only exposed the world to the Arabic genre, but kick-started an international career for Mami.

Sting, who contacted Mami after hearing him perform at a Paris gig, said the beauty of the partnership lay in the song’s power to overcome their language.

“I met with Cheb Mami and I told him: ‘Look, I have a song I would like you to perform on,’ but I didn’t tell him what it was about,” Sting recalled.

“Now, he didn’t speak English and my Arabic is non-existent, but he listened and wrote down some lyrics and came back two weeks later and said, ‘I have something for you.’ He then sang it and I loved it and I asked him, ‘What are you singing about?’ and he said, ‘I am singing about longing.” I said, ‘Well, that’s remarkable because that’s exactly what I am singing about in English.’”

Sting was the frontman, songwriter and bassist for new wave rock band the Police from 1977 to 1984, and launched a successful solo career in 1985.

He has won 17 Grammy Awards, three Brits Awards, a Golden Globe and an Emmy, as well as received four nominations for Oscars Best Original Song.

In 2000, he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2003, Sting was awarded a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music, and in 2019, the BMI Award for Every Breath You Take, as it became the most-played song in radio history.

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How to invest in gold

Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.

A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.

Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”

Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”

Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”

By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.

You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.

You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.

FIXTURES

All times UAE ( 4 GMT)

Friday
Saint-Etienne v Montpellier (10.45pm)

Saturday
Monaco v Caen (7pm)
Amiens v Bordeaux (10pm)
Angers v Toulouse (10pm)
Metz v Dijon (10pm)
Nantes v Guingamp (10pm)
Rennes v Lille (10pm)

Sunday
Nice v Strasbourg (5pm)
Troyes v Lyon (7pm)
Marseille v Paris Saint-Germain (11pm)

COMPANY%20PROFILE

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Key recommendations

Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.

Cricket World Cup League Two

Oman, UAE, Namibia

Al Amerat, Muscat

Results

Oman beat UAE by five wickets

UAE beat Namibia by eight runs

Fixtures

Wednesday January 8 –Oman v Namibia

Thursday January 9 – Oman v UAE

Saturday January 11 – UAE v Namibia

Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia

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