Last night I went with a few members of my family to the Sade Concert at Yas Arena in Abu Dhabi. I leave you here with a few pictures and comments. Needless to say, Sade's performance was dazzling and the audience was mesmerized throughout.
After warming the audience up with Bob Marley's Don't Worry, Be Happy, Sade steps on the stage as the music begins playing Soldier of Love, quite a hit in her album of the same title, the audience naturally screams in excitement. Sade comes on stage dressed for the part:
Following that song, Sade gives a brief hello to the audience before going back to an old hit in her Diamond Life Album with her
Your Love is King. She goes back to her latest Album in
Skin then skips back again to one of my own favorite albums of her, Love Deluxe, singing
Kiss of love with a very picturesque Background:
And when the music starts playing its ba-boom-boom tune, the audience rises in applause knowing what's to come. And Sade does not disappoint. She forces the whole stage and audience to go ba-boom ba-boom with her latest hit,
Love Is Found, accompanied by a silhouetted background of her dancing with her fabulous male partner. The image here fails to capture what we were actually witness to. The heart goes ba-boom ba-boom just looking at this man move.
She follows this with
In Another Time (Solder of Love Album) before taking a short break. The break is followed by a short movie clip prepping us up for a song that again took the audience back to what started Sade.
Smooth Operator apparently remains an all-time favorite with Sade and her audience and the set intensified this feeling:
Then Sade sits on the edge of the stage and sings
Jezebel (Promise) in a black and white setting that plays quite a role here:
After
Bring me Home (Soldier of Love) album and
Is It a Crime (Promise), the stage shows us a banner that reads: Sade Live Tonight in Abu Dhabi while Sade sings
The Safest Place, again from her new album.
This is followed by
All About Our Love (Lovers Rock) and
Paradise (Stronger than Pride) before Sade retires again to change while the band sings
Nothing Can Come Between Us (Stronger than Pride) with the Audience.
When Sade finally returns, she does so behind a white curtain that teases the audience who now sees that Sade comes in a new look, singing
Morning Bird (Soldier of Love) followed by a song long waited for by me personally and, I have no doubt, by every member in the audience,
King of Sorrow (Lovers Rock). In this white elegant dress and with her hair let down, Sade captivates her audience and steals their hearts away.
Then we listen
The Sweetest Taboo (Promise),
The Moon and the Sky (Soldier of Love),
Pearls (Love Deluxe),
No Ordinary Love (Love Deluxe) and finally
By Your Side (Lovers Rock) as Sade once again reminds us that it is impossible to be able to count her many hits, and that, indeed, all that she gave us are hits.
After Sade says her goodbyes and acknowledgments to the band, and after the expected time has lapsed for the audience to cheer and call her back, Sade dazzles us back on stage in red as she is taken on a podium that lifts her as high as the skylines in the screen behind her while she sings
Cherish the Day (Love Deluxe)
The concert ends and we leave reluctantly. As we leave we see the faces of people leaving the stage. We chat with a few who are as baffled as we are by Sade's magnificent performance. As we leave Abu Dhabi today, we meet a few more members of the audience in the airplane and finally airport in Kuwait and the topic remains ever so lovingly: Sade gave us a night that we will never forget.
