Review: CeeLo, Elliot and Arab stars light up the beach

The Yasalam Beats on Beach, the free concert series on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw a fusion of Arab and Western music on stage on Thursday, the opening night.

While Emiratis Mansour Zayed, hip-hoppers Desert Heat and up-and-coming rapper, Sain gave the event on Al Sahil Beach a local flavour, the star attractions of the night were Spice Girl Mel C and Akon, followed by Egyptian heartthrob Tamer Hosni who brought the house down at the end of the evening with some of the Middle East’s favourite modern Arabic pop numbers.

On Friday night, it was the turn of Lebanese pop princes May Diab and singer Hani Al Omary to wow the crowd before R&B sensation CeeLo Green and Missy Elliott wrapped up the weekend.

Green delivered a dazzling show, complete with high-tech DJ effects and lasers which lit up the beach as he performed his popular tracks including Crazy and Forget You.

After a delayed appearance, Missy Elliott (who was scheduled to perform on Thursday night but was delayed thanks to hurricane Sandy in the US), stormed the stage, to close yet another glorious Beats on Beach series.