Rapper and Black Eyed Peas artist will.i.am is the voice of the latest advertisement for Expo 2020 in Dubai, running from 20 October, 2020 until April 10, 2021. The ad for Expo 2020, an event dubbed ‘The World’s Greatest Show’, features scenes of virtual reality and technological wonder, from a child petting a winged CGI horse to luminescent butterflies flapping their wings.
“You weren’t there when humans conquered fire, when they wore animal skin attire or invented the bicycle tire,” announces will.i.am. “You weren’t there when they created algebra, built the pyramids in Giza or painted the Mona Lisa. You weren’t there when they first made paper or built the amphitheatre, when they calculated gravity or made flying a reality. You weren’t there when they composed the classics or discovered antibiotics, made the mechanical clock or taught the world to rock,” he continues, as an image of Elvis Presley flashes on an old TV set.
“But you could be there and with your own eyes witness new acts of human genius,” he says. “Be there to see the alliance of art, music, fashion and science. See a futuristic festival filled with ideas new and radical, performances magical, in a six-month-long spectacle. This, you can’t afford to miss. It’s the best of human kind and the greatest show of our time.”
Will.i.am, 44, is a founding member of the American hip hop group Black Eyed Peas. He is also an entrepreneur, who runs the Artificial Intelligence (AI) company I.AM+. Earlier this year, will.i.am was in Dubai for the 2019 World Government Summit, where he launched a secure platform, Omega, that provides “businesses the tools to develop human-like conversational experiences,” according to its website.
