A live solo tour by Pharrell Williams was never part of the plan.
The American super-producer forcefully re-emerged on the popular scene after a relatively quiet period in the mid-2000s.
The 2006 disappointment of his solo debut In My Mind – an album he subsequently called irrelevant – necessitated a sonic overhaul, and Williams gave up his trademark chilly minimalism to embrace a new breezy, soul-fuelled sound that brought him back to the fold.
After a trio of smash-hit singles – the Marvin Gaye-aping Blurred Lines with Robin Thicke, the triumphant Daft Punk collaboration Get Lucky and the feverishly catchy Happy from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack – everyone wanted a piece of Williams and his potato-head hat.
The 42-year-old obliged by rushing the release of his new album Girl, donning versions of the hat ever since, and embarking on his first solo world tour, which touched down at du Arena on Saturday as part of the Abu Dhabi F1 after-race concert series.
Williams’s Middle East debut can be best described as hit and miss. As a distillation of his amazing career – from solo tracks to hits produced for others – it was an awe-inspiring confirmation that he could perhaps be the Quincy Jones for the iTunes generation.
As a performer, however, Williams lacks the showmanship and charisma needed to carry off an arena show – and the fact his voice gave out three-quarters of the way through didn’t help.
Descending a staircase onto a minimal stage set – the biggest wow factor being a large screen that paired visuals with each track – Williams, his four-piece band and seven-member all-girl dance troupe took the stage and launched into the solo single Come Get it Bae.
The slinky track is a high point on Girl. However, Williams failed to translate its cheeky menace on stage, preferring to remain somewhat immobile while the girls did all the work.
He began to warm up in Hunter (but who wouldn't with those strident basslines?), getting right into the choreographed routine and smoothly weaving through the dancers. His falsetto – so vital to the song's hurried chorus – fortunately remained strong, and was the concert's highlight.
But things began to go awry when Williams launched into the section paying tribute to his previous band N.E.R.D. – he was unable to muster the vocal intensity of Rock Star and Lapdance, and showed a distinct lack of energy. This should have been the high point of the show, with the crowd jigging to the jagged riffs of his N.E.R.D bandmate and Neptunes collaborator Chad Hugo, but Williams remained a subdued figure onstage.
Once Williams admitted his voice was failing, it was up to the crowd and his production hits such as Snoop Dogg's Beautiful and Drop it Like it's Hot to carry him through towards the end of the set.
But by the time the two-part closer Get Lucky and Happy – featuring a surprise appearance onstage by the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell – came along, it didn't matter: Williams lost his voice but found his groove and bopped along to a backing track of his vocals while the crowds happily danced away to the party anthems.
With Williams announcing his UAE return for a New Year’s Eve show in Dubai, let’s hope his voice is back in order and he pulls a far more engaging show out of that hat of his.
sasaeed@thenational.ae