Sisters with voices wow Dubai

Sister Sledge and Gloria Gaynor hold the stage in first Dubai performance

It was love all around as the audience surged in the tennis court and boogied on the stands to disco queens Sister Sledge and Gloria Gaynor.

Sister Sledge may be down to two (from four siblings), but Debbie and Joni held the stage with their energy — undiminished after 34 years.

They were helped no end by two backing vocalists and a band that beat out amazing grooves.

The sisters wove through the old and the new, touching upon hits such as Thinking of you, Lost in music, Good times and He's the greatest dancer.

Sadly, their performance of the group's big hit from 1985, Frankie, lost out to the half-empty Sledge household.

The song so many were looking forward to was clued by Joni, "Dubai, you're making us feel welcome. More than friends… like family."

And there it was — an emotional moment as the sisters held hands and sang We are family, the hit that shot them to fame in 1979.

After a short break, Gloria Gaynor smoothed onto stage with I am what I am.

She has a beautiful voice — all power with a slightly grainy feel. In terms of phrasing she seems to like going full tilt through everything — but showed signs of tiredness more than once.

Her stage manner was like that of a big loving mother; you half expected her to go backstage and come out with slices of apple pie for the audience.

She launched into her repertoire of, in her words, "Something old, something new, something borrowed — nothing blue."

In the borrowed category was a song she said she wished she had recorded: Killing me softly made famous by Roberta Flack and then again by The Fugees.

Every breath you take by The Police was the cover song surprise.

"Unless you've heard me do it, you ain't heard it done like this," said Gaynor just before she launched into her bouncy version.

Other classics included Let it rain and, as with Sister Sledge, the big one we were all waiting for.

"I used to apologise [to the men] for this song. Then I realised, the only men that don't like the song are the bad guys," she said, drawing it out, knowing the crowd was hanging onto each second before the anthem began.

And how it began — there were no bad guys in sight as everybody jumped up and went mad to I will survive.

Over all too soon, Gaynor was back for an encore with the much-crooned I Can't Take My Eyes Off You.