Mika, Honey get Dubai dancing to desi beats

Both Mika Singh and Yo Yo Honey Singh are no strangers to controversies.

While one famously grabbed Bollywood item girl Rakhi Sawant at a party for a forcible kiss, the other drew the wrath of women world over for glorifying rape through his derogatory lyrics.

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise then that a hullabaloo took centrestage when Mika decided to break out into the Indian national anthem at the end of his concert set, even as mixes were being consumed on a high by the enthusiastic crowd.

However, many patriots weren’t pleased.

“You say you respect your country? Maybe you should start practicing that respect by restraining yourself for cheap thrills. Is this a place to sing the Indian national anthem, while people are intoxicated and head banging to the beats?” said Mukesh Garg, who was attending the Atlantis The Palm concert with his wife.

The sentiments were echoed by several others attending the concert, with several walking off in a huff after the “outrage”, according to one.

Yet, despite the sour end to an otherwise tame concert, it is worth noting that both Mika and Honey know how to pull a crowd and charge them up with an adrenaline shot of pure Punjabi beats.

The night kicked off with Honey, who took to the stage at 10.45pm for an hour-long set that included all his famous hit tracks, and, thankfully, left out ‘Balatkaar’ (‘Rape’), the song that actually had him issue a public apology once.

The UK-based singer burst on to stage with LMFAO’s ‘I’m Sexy And I Know It’, before jumping into ‘Hai Mera Dil’, ‘Angrezi Beats’, ‘High Heels’ and all the songs that have made Honey hot property in Bollywood and nightclubs today.

And after 45minutes, when he ran out of tracks in his repertoire, Honey happily went on repeat for another 15 minutes before Mika took his turn in the spotlight.
The crowd went wild.

The Punjabi singer knows how to keep the crowd at its feet, picking on all his famous dance anthems to kick up a storm.

‘Subah Hone Na De’, ‘We Are The Bhais’, ‘Sawaan Me Lag Gayi Aag’, ‘Taki Taki’, almost every big hit found its moment.

When that wasn’t enough, the singer happily sang other Bollywood film anthems and some Rishi Kapoor classics, because he’s Mika Singh.

Perhaps the only thing that jarred during his performance, barring the national anthem breakout in the finale, was his annoying habit to stop singing mid-sentence to introduce people on stage, some of whom he didn’t even know.

Why was he asked to introduce organisers or sponsors mid-performance is anybody’s guess.

But despite the dramatic end to the night, this concert proved that Asians are finally demanding some high quality entertainment events. Let’s hope the momentum is maintained.

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