The Fast & Furious actor and R&B singer-songwriter Tyrese Gibson appears to have fully embraced the region.
“The UAE takes it to a whole ‘nother level baby. Y’all know it, right?” said the 35-year-old as he took to the stage at the XL Beach Club in Dubai Marina on Saturday night.
“The Habtoor brothers are my only, and original, family in the UAE. My only!” he said of his hosts to a medium-sized crowd, in between performing classic hits like Signs of Love Making and Sweet Lady.
The star has been vacationing in Dubai and was the guest of honour at the Julius Baer Beach Polo Cup last weekend alongside fellow Fast & Furious star Michelle Rodriguez. His gig at XL was to be his finale and farewell.
Fans started gathering at the open-air venue, set in the grounds of the Habtoor Grand Hotel & Spa, at around 10pm. The mood was buoyant for a Saturday night and rainbow spectrum strobes darted around the crowd as they danced to remixes of Pharrell Williams’s hit Happy.
A bridge across the club’s central swimming pool was to double as Tyrese’s stage and by midnight, all surrounding tables and VIP cabanas were full to capacity.
With still no sign of Tyrese by 12:45am, dancers in pink leotards and over-the-knee socks took to podiums and kept the crowd entertained until a voice, low and slow, boomed out over the speakers.
Tyrese was in the house.
“Are you ready for me?” he called from a hiding place before finally making his way centrestage.
Dressed in blousy white trousers, an oversized pink shirt and white trainers, he also wore a red and white checkered guthra.
“Hey, did you know I was gonna wear a kandura tonight?” he told fans as they reached over barriers to tug at his clothes.
After performing several tracks, Tyrese invited one lady to join him on stage for a dance. That night’s crowd interaction was strong, but it also had its awkward moments: at one point Tyrese asked the audience to sing back a line of his song Sweet Lady yet seemed unimpressed at the garbled, off-key response.
“Some of y’all really don’t know English!” he said half-amused, half bemused before following up with: “Anyone follow me on Instagram?”
As the ladies screamed enthusiastically, it wasn’t enough for Tyrese, who whipped the frenzy further.
“I love you guys. Don’t you love me, too?” he demanded. “If someone says I love you, you’re supposed to say it back!”
By around 1.40am the show was winding down. Having sung his last song, there was time for one last piece of audience participation.
Tyrese hollered: “Right, I want y’all to say after me: ‘XL and the UAE — it’s a whole ‘nother level baby’.”
For our backstage snaps of Tyrese’s XL gig, visit thenational.ae/arts-culture
rduane@thenational.ae