Adam Hay-Nicholls

My night with Beyoncé at Dubai’s most lavish hotel

Never has a ribbon-cutting ceremony been more decadent

  • From Spectator Life
Beyoncé on stage at Atlantis The Royal in Dubai [Mason Poole/Parkwood Media/Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal]

Last weekend, Beyoncé was paid $24 million (£19.5 million) to perform for 1,500 invited guests in Dubai. Somehow, I was among them.

Her set, which was her first live performance in four years, was 85 minutes long. That’s £230,000 a minute or £13,000 per head. And those millions are the mere tip of the air-conditioned iceberg. Queen B’s record-smashing fee barely surpassed my own champagne and beluga caviar bill that evening – covered by the host. This was all in aid of the opening of a hotel – Atlantis The Royal – which cites itself as ‘the most ultra-luxury resort in the world’. Never has a ribbon-cutting ceremony been so decadent.

It brought to mind the Shah of Iran’s notorious 1971 party amid the ancient ruins of Persepolis, but designed for Instagram. The last Shah, who referred to himself as the ‘King of Kings’, celebrated 2,500 years of the Persian Empire with the Duke of Edinburgh, Rainier and Grace, Imelda Marcos, Haile Selassie, Tito and Ceausescu in attendance. This time, Dubai’s new £1.13 billion hospitality jewel opened its doors to model Kendall Jenner (273 million Instagram followers), pop star Liam Payne, Vogue editor Edward Enninful and actress Rebel Wilson. Influence is measured in different ways these days.

Five decades ago, the Shah ordered 50,000 songbirds to be brought in from Europe for his big bash, all of which promptly expired in the desert heat. This week, some of the glamazons at Atlantis struggled with their sky-high stilettos on the freshly-polished marble. The hotel’s main corridors are intermittently bordered by difficult-to-spot shin-deep pools, which resulted in the Daily Mail’s showbiz reporter ruining her plumage.

At 11.5 metres tall and made of 5.5 tonnes of stainless steel, Droplets is the focal piece of the lobby [Cedric Riberio/Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal]

Persepolis’s three-day extravaganza remains the most OTT bunfight in recorded history.

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