BEYONCE IN THE DESERT

                                              BEYONCE IN THE DESERT

Back in 2009 ,around September time I received a call from my very dear friend Elissa Murtaza, whom at that time was CEO of Live Nation, Middle East and also the exclusive agent representing Beyoncé (throughout the Middle East) based in Dubai, asking me if I would manage and produce the concert for Beyoncé at a new resort on the Red Sea in Egypt, called Port Ghalib.

This was not going to be an easy task because the venue site was an empty sand covered island surrounded by water with only one small humpback bridge as access – Throw in the fact that very few major artists had previously performed in Egypt and with religious and political turmoil kicking in – it was the perfect gig! I get to produce all the easy concerts.

(The BEYONCE I AM Poster for Port Ghalib)

Where to begin? I flew to Cairo, initially to meet the event team, who were a great bunch of guys and gals – incredibly enthusiastic and passionate about this event – but with virtually no experience of producing a major concert. Technical rider – what’s that?

Fortunately, the staging company (from the Netherlands), sound and lighting team were experienced (and delightful to work with) but even so – this concert production was going to be much larger than anything that had been produced previously in Egypt.

A flight to Cairo and then onto Marsa Alam Airport (the only privately owned and operated airport in Egypt), a car ride and I had arrived at the new tourist resort of Port Ghalib. The hotel was excellent and together with the event team from Cairo, we were welcomed by the management (owners & developers) of the resort from the Kharafi family (a leading Kuwait family and major developers) whom were promoting the concert.

The Port Ghalib development was quite incredible – they had built a complete town with every conceivable resource – the weather was fabulous with the Red Sea and glistening swimming pools amid an enormous man made lake, that spread amoeba like in and out of the the villas, hotels and apartments that had been built to attract the burgeoning tourist traffic that Egypt. Little did anyone realize at that time, what was ahead with the coming of the Arab Spring, the demise of the Mubarek regime, the democratically voted Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi – and what then followed…

Port Ghalib may have been bright and bushy sparkling, but the island on which we had to build the stage, back stage areas (dressing rooms, productions rooms, toilets, washing facilities etc) the seating and VIP areas, security, public and artist entrances, power generators – you name it - everything – literally everything - had to be brought onto the site, simply because it was barren land and nothing whatsoever was there!

One of the first problems we encountered was that there were only certain limited days each week that flights landed locally at Marsa Allam from Cairo. Since then the international flights may have multiplied, but back then, if the specific flight schedules didn’t work out we had to fly into Hurghada and then face a four hour drive through the desert areas to Port Ghalib – doesn’t sound much, but when you’re trying to run an operation of this size, it was at times, a hell of an ordeal.

(Our team at New Substance put together a spectacular opening sequence before Beyonce came on stage)

The staging company had bought a brand new stage from Holland to accommodate the massive show that Beyonce was bringing to Egypt – this was fine, although it was only just big enough to carry the tons of lighting, sound and enormous video screen that made up the backdrop of the show – all of this being flown in as part of Beyonce’s “I AM” World Tour.

I quickly realized that despite the Egyptian professional lighting and stage crews, the overall local production team, whilst very willing and helpful were hopelessly out of their depth - I made the decision to fly my team from London (Lisa, Karl, Poppy, Emily and others) and my dear friend and excellent production manager Andy Cotton and his team to help - otherwise this show was never going to happen.

In addition, I had also brought in Patrick O'Mahony and his team from New Substance who were providing the extraordinary aerial artists that were to launch the show. These included an aerial tableaux incorporating two puppeted crane structures, from which sixteen performers, across two crane structures, executed a series of breathtaking drops and fire routines - plus two 9 metre, hand painted helium balloons with suspended acrobats that swopped down from a height of 20 metres enthralling the audience. These were to perform at the start the evening's show.

(The Port Ghalib Resort)

Apart from the technical difficulties of building a complex concert and show site on a small desert island, with only one humped back bridge as access, we were also facing serious security problems – the Muslim Brotherhood were up in arms and increasingly threatening.

CNN reported at that time as follows; “Diva Beyonce Knowles strutting her stuff in the conservative Middle East? Looks like it. Even though not everyone is looking forward to the show.

Beyonce's worldwide, year-long "I am ..." tour, which has taken her from Canada to China since March, is due in Egypt on November 6 at the Red Sea resort of Port Ghalib.

The single show will mark Beyonce's first-ever concert in the land of Pyramids. Tickets have reached $400, according to the Al Arabiya television station. But even before she starts shaking her booty on the Egyptian stage, the scantily dressed superstar singer has created controversy".

Last week, Islamist Egyptian Member of Parliament Hamdi Hassan, part of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood, slammed the government for allowing a singer "who appears naked in her clips" to perform in Egypt, saying it was violating Sharia law.

Sharia, or Islamic religious law, covers many aspects of daily life, including family, sexuality, hygiene and social issues.

"The government is trying to make people indulge in sin and licentiousness to cover up the other crimes it is committing against them," Hassan said in a parliamentary session”.

The threats continued and we had to bring in the local Police, Egyptian Army and Beyonce’s head of advance security (the delightful and very professional) Alf Samuels flew into town – this was getting heavy to say the least.

Well my friends, we did it – against all the odds, the stage got built, the lines of trucks arrived, the tons of equipment were unloaded and the whole island became a concert venue fit for royalty. Even if my team and I were still scrubbing out the portable Loos (toilets) back stage a few hours before Beyonce’s arrival!

Beyonce’s technical teams and management had arrived days before the show and when Beyoncé herself flew in, we were all thrilled. However, as you can imagine more than a little nervous as to security issues. The hotel was great - Beyoncé seemed very happy to be there and was incredibly nice and gracious to everyone.

We had to somehow get Beyoncé onto the island before and after the show - we finally decided that the best route was to bring her by boat onto the site rather than attempt to bring her overland. A magnificent motorboat (one of those enormous cruisers that you see in Monte Carlo or Cannes, made the short trip to the island and the concert began.

Lisa my long-suffering PA had a few weeks earlier given birth to her son Thomas and she had brought him with her and her husband Karl (who was helping advise on security) – Tom at aged 13 weeks became the mascot of this concert and I was holding him when we welcomed Beyoncé onto the island.

Beyoncé’s performance that night was electric and magnificent – what a star? She deserves all the success she has achieved – as many of you know, we have worked with most of the big named artists and sometimes they don’t always live up to their reputations and image – but Beyoncé was a delight to work with – a truly lovely person who was kind and lovely to everyone she met – thank goodness we had no security problems, but we were understandably deeply concerned and all of us sighed a huge sigh of relief when the show was over.

9,000 VIP’s from across Egypt including members of the Government of Egypt. “That was amazing, one of the best shows I have ever seen” Mohamed Samir, Projects Manager for Alkharafi Group

I am told that Beyoncé has subsequently said that this show was one of her favourite concerts – a media report went as follows;

During an interview some considerable time after the concert Beyoncé was reflecting on an amazing decade.

“Beyoncé was posing in a stunning new photo shoot for Harper's Bazaar UK Magazine when she reflected that performing in Egypt (in November 2007) just a few months before the country's uprising started was a deeply memorable experience.

The pop star admitted she found it incredibly moving to see Egyptian women wearing burkas singing along to her female empowerment song “Irreplaceable” - while many of their male partners standing nearby were obviously not too amused”!

Much has happened in Egypt since Beyoncé performed in Egypt – the purpose of this blog is not to debate the rights or wrongs of religious feeling – but I want to say one thing – Beyoncé was a fine ambassador – a truly delightful person – a superb singer and performer – the show she brought to Port Ghalib was stunning – the dancing, the driving all female band, the video film footage, the colossal screen – the energy, drive, dedication, passion and professionalism Beyoncé brought to Egypt was a day to remember. The audience and everyone who met her loved her – an artist cannot give more.

We were all exhausted, but relieved that this was a job done well. Beyoncé flew to Cairo to visit the Pyramids, which she found fascinating and then onto her next concert in Athens, Greece.

We made many friends at that time in Egypt and I don’t think any of us will ever forget the warmth of our welcome, nor the monumental task of producing that concert

It was worth it – every bit of it – and when I read in the press or see on television news the rioting, sad deaths and the turmoil in this ancient land – I feel enormous sadness that people cannot live in peace and happiness without suffering and pain. I know that Beyoncé brought a few hours of musical happiness to the Red Sea – a never to be forgotten experience – our thoughts are with all the crews and people from Egypt that helped us make this show a success and pray that they are all OK.

One small aside - on a gloriously sunny day before the concert date, thousands of beautiful butterflies suddenly appeared - I remember walking amongst the gardens and being surrounded by these exquisite, colourful and utterly endearing butterflies - a wonderful gift to all of us and a memory to be treasured.