Jessie J to perform for free in Dubai today
30-minute acoustic set at Mall of the Emirates is part of Dubai Shopping Festival and will include a fashion show
English singer-songwriter Jessie J is in Dubai for a free performance at Mall of the Emirates today.
The Price Tag and Bang Bang singer will perform a 30-minute acoustic set at Central Galleria. The 5.30pm event — part of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) — is dubbed ‘Fashiontainment’ and will include a runway show.
“People say, ‘What can we expect?’ I never really know, which is the beauty of what I do. It depends on what mood I’m in, what I’m feeling,” J told Gulf News a day earlier.
“There’s going to be models walking, and there’s going to be fashion, so I might completely forget that I have to sing and start pointing and taking pictures of people myself,” she said.
J last performed in the UAE in 2014 as part of the annual music festival RedFestDXB. She brought then 16-year-old Esther Eden up on stage to sing, which led to the Dubai-based teenager signing a deal with a major label. Last year, Eden released her debut album.
“Wow. That’s crazy,” said J. “We went to [Esther’s] school and she told me she was a songwriter. I was like, ‘Sing to me.’ She sang and I invited her back onstage. Her braces were gone. I was like, ‘You’re so grown up!’ And now she’s been signed. That’s amazing. What a journey!”
J, 28, recalled being 17 herself. She was on tour with 1980s icon Cyndi Lauper when Lauper came into her dressing room and, according to J’s impression, asked, “Do you wanna sing Girls with me?”
“That opportunity, I’ve always wanted to be able to share it with someone else as soon as I was old enough and successful enough.”
English singer-songwriter