Chris De Burgh at Beirut Festivals: High on Emotion

BEIRUT: Chris De Burgh and his band ignited Beirut’s waterfront Tuesday night as the international singer performed in the first show of the 6th edition of Beirut Festivals.

And for attendees, it was a blast.

“His songs make us smile and cry at the same time,” numerous attendees told Annahar. The audience was “High on Emotion,” as De Burgh’s signature song says, particularly when it came to the artist’s crazy guitar solos.

Chris De Burgh’s concert attracted people from all ages. “Lady in Red,” one of his most popular songs, was performed more than once at the audience’s request.

Rola Fattal, a lifelong fan of De Burgh, passed her music taste to her daughter Haya. “'Don’t Pay The Ferryman' made me cry,” Haya told Annahar.

Abbass Abdallah said that he “loves De Burgh’s old and new songs equally.”

People attending Chris De Burgh’s concert seemed thirsty for his music. Some of them came a long way to watch him. Walid Fattal and his friend Samer Dabliz, for example, came from Tripoli, in North Lebanon, to Beirut, to listen to one of their “favorite musicians.”  

“We have been listening to his songs since the 80s, and he has not changed at all,” they said.

De Burgh, who has previously visited Lebanon a number of times and performed in many of its festivals, saluted the Lebanese capital in a concert that appeared to have a different touch this year. This was evident when De Burgh sang “The Borderline," which clearly resonated with the audience at a time of regional instability and suffering as some attendees burst into tears.