Dubai Sports City thundered with the sounds of eight musical hot shots on Friday as 15,000 music lovers gathered for the first Atelier Live Dance Arena festival, headlined by US r&b star Ne-Yo, delivering on his promise to his Dubai fans to make it a night to remember.
His last performance in the UAE left many fans disappointed when it turned out to be a club appearance. Ne-Yo erased all memories of that when he took to the stage, teasing the crowd to "come closer", a line from one of his biggest hits.
The Tonight singer brought a full entourage of dancers, a band and all those Michael-Jackson-inspired dance moves to boot, as he worked his way through a full set after midnight.
More recent hits One In A Million and Champagne Life joined the massive Beautiful Monster, Miss Independent and So Sick as Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr. (as he's known to his mum) shared her relationship advice.
"She told me, ‘never go to bed mad'. So I wrote a song about it," he said, launching into Mad from his spot on the catwalk extending from the stage out into the audience, from where he was about to throw countless sweaty towels into the screaming crowd.
Before Ne-Yo it was the turn of British X Factor winner Leona Lewis, wearing her signature sparkly tuxedo look. "You'll have to bear with me, I've been a bit unwell. But I didn't want to miss tonight," she said, before powering through her hits, including Bleeding Love and Better In Time, without a hint she was putting in anything less than 100 per cent.
But before all that, before Taio Cruz, Natasha Bedingfield and Skylar Grey, it was British r&b act Jay Sean, making a grand entrance with Ride It, following it up quickly with Remember and Got My Eyes On You.
Dressed in a flashing red jacket and equally flashy red boots he instantly won over the crowd with his Punjabi rap in Dance With You. Accompanying him on stage was MC Zani, and pair enthralled the audience with some beatboxing.
Audience member Jamie was overjoyed. "I am a huge Jay Sean fan and I am here only for him. He was amazing on stage. I wish he had stayed longer," he said as Jay Sean wrapped it up with Down. "Dubai's crowd is so warm and amazing, they know how to party and have fun.," said MC Zani. "I am definitely coming back for more."
The crowd wasn't kept waiting long as Skylar Gray opened her act with I Need a Doctor. Dressed in an auburn and white flowing gown she sang her own version of Love The Way You Lie, which she wrote for Eminem and Rihanna.
Natasha Bedingfield, a shimmering vision in a golden spiked dress, began with These Words, playing her own hits and some great covers -- The Black Eyed Peas song I Gotta Feeling and a powerful version of Prince's Purple Rain. Bedingfield fan Tanya Jones said: "I simply love her voice and her outfit today. She was amazing!"
Taio Cruz got the crowd back on its feet with hits Break Your Heart, She's Like A Star, Without You (which he wrote for David Guetta) and Little Bad Girl, and a preview of Trouble Maker from his upcoming album. A few guys showed their love for the singer by climbing on to the stage. "Show some love for security," quipped Cruz.
Paul Roy, Chairman of RIVA Group, responsible for organising the entire event said, "We organized the line-up in a day and then we got exactly a month to book the venue, issue the passes. The last few days have been very hectic but the 15,000 turnout was well worth it." He added the company plans to organise similar events in future.
The venue's location was a struggle for some fans, who didn't know where to park their car and complained of poor signage. "It was really difficult to find the way here and after reaching here we didn't know where to park. There were no proper signs," said Samantha O' Sullivan, while Rakan Adi felt that given the stadium is huge ,there should have been more people. "I expected a bigger crowd than this and the stadium should have been completely packed. But I loved the arrangements. It was very convenient."
