Blow Out 2006 Concert

Hello friends,

This past Thursday we all went to the Blow Out Concert 2006 (check out website for more details) held at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre. The attraction for us all was the Pakistani singer Atif Aslam, who skyrocketed to fame with his song Aadat. However, before we could see Atif perform, we had to see the warm up group.

We were in the VVIP section, which was right in front of the stage, so close the screaming female fans could literally touch the singers on stage. First up was Mallika, an Indian girl who was brought up in Dubai, and she sang some of her songs which she has produced here in a soon to be released album. I was skeptical, but truly Mallika did a good job, and she will be one to watch out for as she sang seamlessly between Hindi and Arabic. She just needs one song to break herself onto the charts.

Following Mallika were A-Class, a group of guys from Madagascar who thought they were the next bext thing after Tupac, 50 Cents and other rapgroups. While A Class tried hard to get the people to dance and sing along, the audience was just not ready toi put up with the crappiness. We did not pay our tickets to witness this abomination. It got sickening when one of the singer from A Class sang a very derogatory song about women using the word "juice." Totally sickening, and certainly amazing to know how that song past the censor to be heard by the crowds of families there, including little children.

With much relief, A-Class left and Raghav came on, amidts much cheering and applause. He was wrong introduced as a British-Indian, when everyone knows he is a Canadian-Indian, and I heard a few people shout out angrily "He is Canadian Indian, not British Indian!!!" Raghav performed his songs from his album Storyteller, and clearly three songs stood out: Angel Eyes (which he sang twice), Can't Work it Out and Raghav lasted only for 30 minsutes on stage.

Few minutes later, from the side of the apmhitheatre, came someone singing surrounded by his entourage. It was Atif, and everyone started screaming. Seeing a Pakistani singer brought out the patriotism that is in me. He came on stage in a completely new look, whcih was a welcome change, and began belting out his songs. The whole section in which we were in started jumping, singing and swaying to his music. However, it was Aadat, Woh Lamhe and his new song Tere Bin that totally blew the crowd away. However, my favorite song of the evening was Atif's Yakeen, which is a slow song but with awesome humming, which is totally bewitching and gives you goosebumps all over. Every single person in the crowd was in silence as Atif sat down on the stage and sang; he was that powerful! Atif sang for a little over an hour.

Following Atif were the Rishi Rich Project, which is comprised of Juggy D, Veronica and Jay Sean. These are a bunch of Indian singers who grew up in the UK and have some really nice songs. One of the highlight was Juggy D and Veronica perfroming Hum Tum, which was very enjoyable. Jay Sean's Stolen was another highlight. However, for us, Atif was simply superb.

After the show there was an After Show Party at Kandy Klub at the Fairmont hotel. I was not allowed to go because I was in shorts. What I heard from my friends the next day was not much favorable, with the majority of the people drunk.

All in all, the Blow Out 2006 was a good experience, and Atif was worth theprice of the ticket admission. If Atif were not performing, we wouldn't have gone to this concert.

What's next? The Rain Dance party on the 14th of this month with Himesh Reshamiyya and Ali Zafar. We are still thinking if we should go to this or not.

Mansur