Fireworks over Palm Jumeirah - think chrysanthemums and Roman candles galore. A Winter Palace theme - think Russian royal court meets Garden of Eden.
A gala dinner at the original Atlantis - think lobster, Wagyu and good old shawarma. An intimate concert by one of the world’s most popular bands – think Maroon 5 playing to a crowd of 4,000. The National News reports.
As far as New Year’s Eve parties go, it does not get more upscale than that. Even before frontman Adam Levine kick-started the Maroon 5 concert on Wednesday night, the stage had been set for a scintillating start to the New Year.
The night opened with a lively set from a 30-piece band, belting out the best of Madonna, Rihanna, even Frozen's Elsa, much to the delight of younger guests. At 10.30pm, Levine burst onto stage, dressed in a studded leather jacket, diving straight into the band’s breakout 2002 single Harder to Breathe. Even more than 20 years later, the fast-paced rock anthem remains timeless as Levine’s bright vocals offset the intense, almost exasperated lyrics.
On the other end of the spectrum from the band’s debut studio album Songs About Jane, Sunday Morning is soulful without being cheesy, and delivered on the Dubai stage with a maturity that was perhaps missing when the music video was released in the early noughties.
This Love, also from the same album, is as catchy – if not more so – on stage as it is in the studio. As a Daily Lobo review noted: “It might make a foot tap, a head nod or even a booty shake if played at a loud volume.” And that’s exactly what happened here, with the well-heeled crowd singing and swaying along to its mid-tempo balladry.
For 90 minutes, the band took the crowd back and forth through its admirable oeuvre, going from cheery and bright to low-key and brooding, yet always with a sense of thrumming vibrancy in the air. Maroon 5 were last in the UAE for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after-race concert series in 2024.
US band Maroon 5 have announced a concert in Dublin’s Malahide Castle on June 30th, 2026, their first time playing in Ireland since 2014. The Los Angeles band, led by charismatic frontman Adam Levine, have sold more than 135 million records worldwide over a 30-year career, and have clocked up more than 32 billion combined streams on Spotify, with 12 of their songs garnering more than 1 billion streams each.
