Review: Boney M deliver timeless performance in Dubai

Pop-dico legends return to the city with what was virtually a Greatest Hits evening

In some ways, pop-disco legends Boney M delivered a history lesson when they played a boisterous one-hour set at Dubai’s Hard Rock Café on Saturday night.

Fronted by Maizie Williams, one of the original members of the ultra-successful music group who in the late ’70s and early ’80s stormed the charts with one dance floor hit after the other, the quartet had the motley crowd on its feet with their bouncing songs of love and gangsters.

The set was virtually a Greatest Hits performance and featured best sellers Bahama Mama, Belfast, Brown Girl in The Ring, Daddy Cool, Gotta Go Home, Ma Baker and the monster hits Rasputin and Rivers of Babylon.

Williams, a West Indies-born British model and singer, led from the front as her backup singers showcased precise vocals and interpretations of the original Boney M’s hit song. Williams is well known for her humorous side and she playfully serenaded the crowd. The vocals were nearly flawless and the timing of the harmonies close to being immaculate.

Boney M’s sound famously marries bubblegum pop hooks to a pounding disco beat like their contemporaries, Donna Summer, Sister Sledge, Gloria Gaynor and Kool and the Gang, successful did to create a sound that became the music craze of the ’70s and ’80s and were the inspiration for the commercially successful Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive and Thank God It’s Friday blockbuster films.

Ma Baker, a colourful gangster story that features a stuttered vocal hook that gets stuck in your head, was a crowd favourite while the up-tempo stormers Belfast, Rasputin and Gotta Go Home, ensured that every person present was moving to the group’s slick dance floor appeal.

During the heights of disco fever every gramophone, car stereo and discotheque appeared to be playing a Boney M song. It was considered ‘hip’ at the time.

“We love you Dubai,” bellowed Williams at one point in the show. “Any time is Boney M time.”

For sixty odd minutes on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Café, time stood still, as we were transported back to the rockin’ ’70s.

It was Saturday Night Fever all over again.

Review: Boney M deliver timeless performance in Dubai

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