Two of the biggest western pop stars to ever come to Qatar held separate concerts over the weekend at the 24th Men’s Handball World Championship.
The shows were mostly well-received by those who attended, including Gazanfarulla Khan, who shot these videos.
Thousands of fans packed into the Lusail Multipurpose Hall (which seats 15,300) to see Pharrell Williams perform on Thursday.
Those who attended the concert said the brand-new venue, along with the upbeat audience helped make the performance a memorable one.
The crowd that turned out for Gwen Stefani last night was less robust – attendees reported a lot of empty seats – but the show was just as enjoyable, fans said.
The low attendance might have been due to confusion about Stefani performing. On Friday, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah died, and several countries including Qatar declared a mourning out of respect for his death.
As part of this, some entertainment-related events here were canceled over the weekend. Stefani’s performance was initially postponed, but then it was announced it would go ahead as planned.
The late hour of the concert – both performers took to the stage after 11pm – may also have played a role.
Nonetheless, many of those who attended the shows said they were glad to taken part in the events. And Stefani herself seems to have enjoyed her time in Doha:
The handball tournament continues until Feb. 1.
The full match schedule can be viewed here, and tickets can be bought online here, or at the dedicated booths in City Center, Villaggio, Landmark and Al Khor malls as well as at the main entrance to the venues.
Thoughts?
It was awesome!
But a lot of my friends were confused
About the date and missed it
I definitely think the confusion over whether it was cancelled (for 3 days of mourning) or not cause the low turnout for Stefani’s concert. That’s unfortunate, and it would be nice if ALL the authorities here could get their acts together in regards to sharing accurate information in a timely fashion. It’s great that Doha is starting to get bigger name concerts and performers, but if they can’t overcome their bumbling and inept oversight of such events, it won’t mean squat.
Many people didn’t go to Gwen Stefani’s concert because it started at 11 pm on a Saturday night, people have work and school next morning. Pharrell’s concert was on a Thursday so people were able to attend because they didn’t have to get up early the next morning.
yes…and we get content even with playback concerts….better than nothing!
Loved both concerts, as did my kids. Thanks so much to the organisers for bringing them here, hate to think what it cost them!
It was super – even with Gwen lip sync and last record skipping on occasions, it was not a damperner. @40 bucks it was a steal.
Looking forward to many more concerts in this fantastic venue as a Legacy to this structure…..
Maybe there have also been spectators who just came to see Handball ( : and left after the 2 games ?!!! As we die. Sorry, it’s still a worldchampionship!!! Sad, people are complaining that there aren’t enough people showing up for miss stefani!!! What about the Event itself?
Fair enough. We missed the first game on Thursday night because we were just coming for the concert. But made sure we saw both on Saturday, it’s a really exciting sport to watch.
I hope Qatar will host the World wide Qari competition on of these years. Would be great.
The event was well organized but sad to say that both the singers did not perform live , it was a show of lip-sink singing which was very much unexpected from both the talents. I have seen many live shows and both of them need to take risk of performing live which is a true gift to all the fans who spend time, money expecting live performance.