One of Alecia Moore’s most significant moments took place at a motor race. The pop singer known as Pink performs at Abu Dhabi’s F1 Race Day concert on Sunday, which may just conjure memories of a much less glamorous motocross event, in California 15 years ago. There the singer proposed to her pro-motorcyclist boyfriend, Carey Hart, by writing “Will You Marry Me?” on a plastic noticeboard, but Hart kept riding. The next lap, she added the word “Serious!”, he abruptly stopped, and they married six months later.
It should come as no surprise that Moore did the asking, as this is not a woman who worries about following societal convention, whether it be a marriage proposal or how pop stars should "behave". Almost 20 years into a successful solo career, the Pennsylvania-born singer continues to gleefully crash through barriers.
That uncompromising attitude has encouraged a generation of female pop stars to take a more distinctive, experimental path. The likes of Katy Perry and Kesha, even Lady Gaga and Rihanna, would arguably have experienced much less interesting careers without Pink. As for Christina Aguilera: well, that inspiration turned a little sour.
Moore does enjoy an occasional feud: this one began because of Aguilera's allegedly diva-like behaviour on the collaborative single Lady Marmalade, back in 2001. Pink was the lesser name then but surged ahead later that year with the big hit album Missundaztood, which inspired Aguilera's new material, notably the 2002 hit Beautiful. "I don't think imitation is the highest form of flattery," Moore responded. "I think it's annoying."
Moore’s vocal range was changing younger lives too. For a teenage Adele, seeing Pink in concert was a defining moment. “I remember sort of feeling like I was in a wind tunnel, her voice just hitting me,” recalled the British singer, in 2010. “It was incredible.”
That wide-reaching popularity continues. Now 38, Moore released her seventh album last month, Beautiful Trauma, and its first-week sales – more than 400,000 copies – were the highest for a female artist since Beyoncé's Lemonade 18 months earlier.
The new record is a lower-octane affair than her trademark sound – as was her previous project, an unlikely country-folk pairing called You+Me with the acoustic musician Dallas Green – but Moore remains a compelling presence. Beautiful Trauma's lead single, What About Us, could be the anthem for a revolution.
This career progression seemed unlikely when her first album, Can't Take Me Home, arrived in 2000. Moore's teen-girl R'n'B group Choice was discovered by the legendary production team LA Reid and Babyface (TLC, Whitney Houston, Usher), and she was subsequently thrust into an R'n'B-heavy solo career. Her debut album did well, but she swiftly rebelled.
The singer wrested control of her next record despite reservations from her label bosses, and made a giant leap for pop stardom. Missundaztood sold 15 million copies and established the punk-pop Pink sound, initially via the catchy, quirky single Get the Party Started (2001), plus a raw lyrical honesty elsewhere. Her image evolved too: snarling, bold and accessible.
One of Moore’s own role models was a unique, late-1960s pioneer: the late Janis Joplin, arguably the first solo female rock star. Joplin’s hard-living ethos clearly resonated, but this post-millennium star channelled her own love of excitement and excess in a more positive direction.
Motor racing looms large. You may recall her apt appearance as a motocross promoter in the movie Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, alongside Hart. They initially met at an extreme sports event in 2001, and the pop star was actually working with his pit crew the day she proposed. So it was perhaps inevitable that her live work would eventually involve risk-taking too. Moore started performing aerial dance at concerts in the late 2000s, and her high-flying appearance at the 2010 Grammy Awards was widely acknowledged as one of the finest performances in that ceremony's history.
The high-flying act went scarily awry months later, however: at a gig in Nuremberg, Germany, she was thrown into a barrier when a harness malfunctioned. But her enthusiasm remained high. "I like flying around on stage," she said in 2014. "People say, 'Why's she always in the [expletive] air?' Because I'm having more fun than you."
Her approach to making music is suitably full-throttle, too. Moore wrote the song What About Us with the rock musician Johnny McDaid, and impressed him with her approach.
“What was really interesting about Alecia is she doesn’t really inch forward.” said McDaid, “She leaps with kind of abandon into the fire and does it so beautifully that you have to go with her.”
Along Moore's career path there have been bold choices and unlikely collaborations. Moore co-wrote much of the rock-infused Missundaztood album with Linda Perry, who had fronted one of her favourite bands, 4 Non Blondes. That album's success launched Perry's career as a prolific songwriter, although their friendship ended when she began writing with Aguilera. "I took it really personally when she started working with other artists, particularly artists I didn't like," said Moore.
Her collaborative choices tend to be less consciously cool than many of her pop contemporaries, a rare departure being the recent club hit Waterfall, in which she guested with Stargate and Sia. Elsewhere she has worked with the activist indie-folk duo Indigo Girls – on another protest song, 2006's Dear Mr President, the comedy hip-hoppers The Lonely Island, and with Eminem on the bouncy track Revenge, from Beautiful Trauma. The singer has also penned songs for some surprisingly mainstream names: Cher, Celine Dion and the country singer Kenny Chesney.
Her frank songwriting can sometimes offend. The intensely personal 2001 single Family Portrait – about her parents' divorce – infuriated Moore's mother, who sold her story to sensationalist newspaper The National Enquirer. Seven years on, the upbeat single So What openly delved into Moore's own separation, from Hart. "I guess I just lost my husband," she sang, although ironically he only realised the song's theme when filming a cameo for the video. They soon reconciled.
Moore has not mellowed but picks fights more judiciously nowadays: why feud with family and fellow artists when there are much worthier targets? Back in 2006 she made a memorable statement about negative female role models with the single Stupid Girls, and its video satirising seemingly vacuous figures such as Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Now, as a mother of two, the singer is increasingly concerned with the unrealistic expectations placed on modern women.
Last year she posted a widely-shared Instagram post about how, post-pregnancy, her weight would be classified as “obese”. “I don’t feel obese,” she wrote. “The only thing I’m feeling is myself. Stay off that scale ladies!”
Then in August this year, one particularly powerful speech made worldwide headlines. Receiving the MTV Video Music Awards Vanguard Award, Moore recalled a conversation with her six-year-old daughter, Willow, who was worried about looking boyish. Moore admitted to often being criticised for being “too masculine, or having too many opinions,” but still fills arenas across the globe. “We don’t change,” she told Willow, the audience, and the world. “We help other people to change, so they can see more kinds of beauty.”
A decade on from her last appearance in the UAE, Pink may well inspire a whole new generation on Sunday.
Pink plays du Arena, Yas Island, on Sunday. Doors open at 6pm for Race Day tickets holders onlu. You can buy tickets at www.yasmarinacircuit.com or by calling 800 927
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Read more:
Diana Ross gets lifetime achievement at American Music Awards on night of divas
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2017: All you need to know for the weekend of racing at Yas Marina Circuit
The American Music Awards: based on nothing but public love
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The biog
Name: Salem Alkarbi
Age: 32
Favourite Al Wasl player: Alexandre Oliveira
First started supporting Al Wasl: 7
Biggest rival: Al Nasr
What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."
Players Selected for La Liga Trials
U18 Age Group
Name: Ahmed Salam (Malaga)
Position: Right Wing
Nationality: Jordanian
Name: Yahia Iraqi (Malaga)
Position: Left Wing
Nationality: Morocco
Name: Mohammed Bouherrafa (Almeria)
Position: Centre-Midfield
Nationality: French
Name: Mohammed Rajeh (Cadiz)
Position: Striker
Nationality: Jordanian
U16 Age Group
Name: Mehdi Elkhamlichi (Malaga)
Position: Lead Striker
Nationality: Morocco
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
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
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
No Shame
Lily Allen
(Parlophone)
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
Opening day UAE Premiership fixtures, Friday, September 22:
- Dubai Sports City Eagles v Dubai Exiles
- Dubai Hurricanes v Abu Dhabi Saracens
- Jebel Ali Dragons v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl, 48V hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: Dh289,000
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key fixtures from January 5-7
Watford v Bristol City
Liverpool v Everton
Brighton v Crystal Palace
Bournemouth v AFC Fylde or Wigan
Coventry v Stoke City
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Manchester United v Derby
Forest Green or Exeter v West Brom
Tottenham v AFC Wimbledon
Fleetwood or Hereford v Leicester City
Manchester City v Burnley
Shrewsbury v West Ham United
Wolves v Swansea City
Newcastle United v Luton Town
Fulham v Southampton
Norwich City v Chelsea
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
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
Results:
First Test: New Zealand 30 British & Irish Lions 15
Second Test: New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
Third Test: New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
FIXTURES
All kick-off times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Brackets denote aggregate score
Tuesday:
Roma (1) v Shakhtar Donetsk (2), 11.45pm
Manchester United (0) v Sevilla (0), 11.45pm
Wednesday:
Besiktas (0) v Bayern Munich (5), 9pm
Barcelona (1) v Chelsea (1), 11.45pm
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
if you go
The flights
Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow.
Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes).
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
