Could Juliana Down pull off at the last minute what they haven’t in a month? While the likelihood of them opening the act for the much-anticipated Coldplay concert in the capital this Saturday looks as minuscule as the eye of a needle, the Abu Dhabi-based band hasn’t lost hope.
“Anything can happen at the last minute. We are still hoping,” said Juliana Down’s 23-year-old vocalist Hassan Dia. The four-member band launched a massive month-long campaign to convince Coldplay to let a local band open for them, but failed to cut ice with the Grammy winners. It is important for the local music scene that opportunities like this are made accessible to local acts, otherwise our fledgling scene will not go anywhere at all. We believe that Chris [Coldplay vocalist] and Co, based upon the way they are portrayed, would care enough about making a difference at any given opportunity to make this happen if they knew about the campaign,” said campaign coordinator Saleh Hamed. It now appears that Coldplay will open their show with an English band.
Hassan is disappointed, but doesn’t want to blame anyone. “It’s always good to include local bands in such events as it gives them a lot of exposure. I wouldn’t blame the organisers or the band because when a band goes on a world tour, they have a set opening act,” he said.
Sponsored by Flash and Live Nation, Coldplay’s one-off Abu Dhabi concert – their first in the region – comes as the final stop on their world tour for their fourth album, Viva Le Vida, regarded as the most commercially successful rock album of the decade. It’s this album that earned the four-member British band seven nominations at this year’s Grammys, including Album of the Year.
Fans can expect most of their hits, including Viva La Vida, Violet Hill, Lost, Fix you, Yellow, Clocks and Lovers in Japan. Official broadcaster MTV Arabia is running a competition on their website www.mtva.com for fans who want to win free tickets to the event.
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