Music fans can enjoy a double helping of diva in Dubai with confirmed concert dates for the world's number one-selling female artist Mariah Carey and former Black Eyed Peas Fergie.
Universal Music has this week confirmed the world-renowned artists will perform at Dubai Festival City with back-to-back concerts on May 15 and 16.
Promoting her new album, E=MC2, which this week hit the top of the Billboard charts, Carey will perform first on Thursday, May 15, followed by Fergie the following evening.
Ticket prices have not yet been announced but are expected to go on sale online from tomorrow.
The announcement comes after a busy week for Carey, as her latest album went to number one and her new single Touch My Body made chart history.
The single was her 18th number one, racking up 79 career weeks at the top spot overall, surpassing Elvis Presley's 17 number ones and tying his career week all-time high of 79.
The diva was also honoured in New York as the most successful female recording artists of all time, with a special ceremony which saw the Empire State Building lit up in purple — just like her album cover.
The lighting ceremony took place at the Empire State Building on April 25, where Carey flicked a light switch on a scale model of the Empire State Building. The tower was then lit in lavender, pink and white lights all weekend in her honour.
Rebecca Brianceau, of Universal, Dubai, said the label was extremely excited to be bringing two such wonderful artists to Dubai back-to-back.
‘So excited'
She said: “We are so excited about the concerts and cannot wait to welcome the ladies to the UAE. We are expecting great things on both nights.''
The venue holds a capacity crowd of 15,000 and tickets for both concerts are expected to sell out in a matter of days.
Mel Tyler, General Manager of Midas Promotions, has said the people of Dubai are in for a real treat.
And it hasn't exactly been a quiet week for Fergie — who originally found fame with the popular group the Black Eyed Peas.
Squeezing Dubai in as part of a current world tour, Fergie has also been involved with the movie soundtrack for the up-and-coming Sex and the City movie due for release on May 29.
Last week it was reported the film's song, called Labels or Love, had been leaked onto the internet. In an Entertainment Weekly interview, director and writer Michael Patrick King stated that “it's an entirely new song with lyrics, but it has the Sex and the City theme as the DNA — on steroids.''
Hits
Carey is expected to perform hits old and new with a few “extras'' thrown in for good measure according to organisers with Fergie singing the songs which have recently seen her rise through the chart positions including Big Girls Don't Cry and London Bridge.
Both Carey and Fergie have performed in Dubai before with Carey singing to a sell-out crowd at Dubai Media City in 2005 and Fergie hitting the stage with the Black Eyed Peas at the Airport Expo in 2006. This is the first time Fergie will perform in the UAE as a solo artist.
Mariah Carey
Carey, 38, was born in Long Island, New York, and began singing at the age of four. Immediately after graduating from high school, Carey moved to Manhattan to pursue her music career.
Fergie
Fergie, or Stacy Ann Ferguson, was born on March 27, 1975 in America and is a pop/r 'n' b singer-songwriter, actress and rapper.
She is a former member of the kids' television series Kids Incorporated, and the girl group Wild Orchid. Ferguson was also a co-host of the television show Great Pretenders. She released her debut album, The Dutchess, in 2006.
