PSL opening ceremony: Dubai left in frenzy, courtesy Abida Parveen, Jason Derulo
At Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Pakistan T20 League opened its third year. Each year the opening ceremony is a fanfare-filled event with leading stars performing and attending. A theatrical light show/fireworks is an additional sight for fans across the world and especially in the stadium.
This year, as the third edition of PSL opened with an additional team of Multan Sultans, the opening ceremony was filled with just as much fanfare and spectacular gymnastics and light shows.
The stage promised performers such as Ali Zafar, Shehzad Roy and American star Jason Derulo. At the ground, the magestical Abida Perveen sat amidst a dancing troupe and sang a medley of her most famous classics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryn4iXWHxqA
The ceremony was beautifully curated in terms of the light show and performances. Ali Zafar performed on his Coke Studio hit Rockstar. Ramiz Raja opened the floor to the five captains of the tournament with his classical line of questioning. Sarfaraz Ahmed, skipper of Quetta Gladiators, stated that he wished Viv Richards was here. Sir Richards is apparently not here in UAE as yet due to some visa issues. “He has a diplomatic passport,” stated Sarfaraz, and we guess some issues may have come in the way due to that. Ramiz also commented on Misbah’s age, asking him if his “batteries were still working well”.
The PSL Season 3 opening ceremony was hosted by Hareem Farooq and Bilal Ashraf and both seemed to be floundering with a fairly weak script and over the top theatrics. Thankfully, the audiences had little time to focus on them as performances were quick and happened without delay. Pyrotechnics and light show
Abida Perveen sang a preppy medley of her songs with a goosebump-inducing opening with Chal Uth Bulleya Othay Chaliye followed with a mix of Chaiti aaveen vey tabeebaan and Dama Dam Mast Qalandar. As Laal Meri Pat followed, the stadium ground changed with sufi dancers and whirling dervishes. Pyrotechnics and light shows complimented Abida Perveen’s performances giving the audiences their money’s worth. The repititions of ‘dama dam mast qalandar’, as it always does, gave goosebumps to all those watching this magnificent legend in Dubai’s ground tonight.
Hareem and Bilal later introduced Shehzad Roy as the ‘heartthrob’ and Shehzad did a snappy number with an equally snappy dance troupe dancing with him. His performance was followed by Jason Derulo, whose singles went Platinum and the song that he performed, Want to Want Me arrived at number five on Billboard Hot 100 in 2015. He later said 'Assalam o Alaikum' which amused many people.
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