Candlelight was initially conceived as a classical music series with concerts featuring works by renowned composers, such as Vivaldi, Mozart, and Chopin.

Now, the ever-growing list of programs includes a wide variety of themes and genres, including tributes to contemporary artists like Queen, ABBA and more. This innovative format provides a unique live musical experience, offering a variety of programs to meet all tastes.

The Candlelight Concerts Middle East team lead Lina Oudghiri has been passionate about the arts for most of her life.

Her role as the Candlelight Team Lead in the Middle East allowed her to merge her business acumen with her passion for art. Bringing a fundamentally modern vision to the classical music experience, they have reached a broad audience of age, nationality, and social background, thus promoting diversity in the region’s cultural landscape – a feat she credits as one of her proudest achievements. Under her leadership, Candlelight has seen much success in the Middle East, with the community expanding with each new concert.

To delve further, Emirates Woman spoke to Candlelight Concert by Fever’s Middle East Oudghiri to learn how her journey began.

Talk us through your background.

My background is quite diverse. I was born and raised in Morocco, where I developed a passion for the arts early in life, particularly ballet and contemporary dance. Later, I moved to France to pursue studies in Literature and Business. After university, I entered the world of television and advertising as Client Director for France Televisions Publicite, where I focused on high-quality television and digital programs that positively impact the brands through advertising and sponsorship. I joined Fever in April 2022 to spearhead the Candlelight Concert Series in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where classical music events were often aimed at a niche audience. As the Candlelight Team Lead in the Middle East, I’ve been able to combine my strategic mindset with my love for the arts.

You learned ballet and contemporary dance early on – tell us more.

This passion is the foundation of who I am today. Ballet taught me discipline, to fight for what I loved, to never give up, and to work hard until I become the best version of myself. Discipline allowed me to acquire a certain technique that later would be the basis of my fulfillment in contemporary dance.

Your role as the Candlelight Team Lead in the Middle East allowed Lina to merge her business acumen with her passion for art – how do you balance both?

My love for art has given me the demand for excellence. I am immensely proud of what we produce. I have a great affection for the artists we work with, and I consider that each one has contributed to the great structure of Candlelight Middle East. But to ensure Candlelight’s success, we must not forget that it is a business. It is necessary to understand the desires of our audience and the trends, and to manage all the teams involved in this project to ensure its expansion. There is a fine line between artistic intuition and the public’s taste. Fortunately, and this is where the Candlelight model stands out, we benefit from a vast database based on concerts that take place in more than 150 cities worldwide and which alternate between more than 100 musical programs. There is no crystal ball, there is just data that tells us what to play, when, where, for whom, and how!

Classical music is seen with its innovative format – talk us through the journey of each concert.

One of our goals at Fever is to inspire our users with innovative experiences by creating new ‘Fever Original’ ideas that we know will interest them. We launched the Candlelight Concerts in 2019 after realizing the need to make classical music accessible to a wider audience, reaching beyond the core demographic of classical music enthusiasts. We started by testing different concepts and quickly found that the audiences who attended were keen on more intimate experiences. They also shared concerns about the length of traditional classical concerts being too long and not knowing how to dress or behave at events which had always seemed more “grand and elite”.

Candlelight Concerts by Fever offers a variety of programs to meet all tastes – what are some of the most interesting concerts so far?

We develop Candlelight concert programs by combining recommendations from our dedicated in-house music curation team, the data received by analyzing global metrics, and feedback from audiences and musicians. So far, in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, we have already presented some of our global best-selling programs, including concerts featuring works by renowned composers such as Vivaldi, Mozart, and Chopin and tributes to contemporary artists like Queen and Coldplay. We are also always looking to meet our local audiences’ expectations and create programs that cater to varied tastes. For example, we’ve presented performances in Dubai and Abu Dhabi featuring A Century of Iconic Arabic Music and Indian Music Night which is exclusive to the region.

The Candlelight Concert Series in the UAE and Saudi Arabia – How did it all begin?

At Fever, our mission is to democratiSe access to culture and entertainment in the regions where we are present. Classical music is very niche, so the essence of the Candlelight concerts is to bring a fundamentally modern vision to the classical music experience to reach a broad audience of age, nationality, and social background, thus promoting diversity in the cultural landscape. We had seen the experience’s success in many cities worldwide, so thought bringing it to the ever-evolving cultural scene of the Middle East was a step in the right direction. With this in mind, we started with our first concert – Best of Chopin performed by Aldo Dotto. We were sold out after a few days of sales. 1.5 years later we are still sold out to almost all our Chopin’s shows and Aldo is still one of our best artists. And as they say, the rest is history. We had the pleasure of celebrating the UAE with an incredible public concert in the Founder’s Memorial in Abu Dhabi. Over 1,600 attendees immersed themselves in an exclusive musical program, combining piano and traditional Arabic instruments for a rediscovery of the region’s musical legends.

Candlelight has seen much success in the Middle East, with the community expanding with each new concert. – What lies ahead?

Our success in the Middle East has been wonderful, and we are looking forward to the exciting possibilities the future holds as we continue to expand our community. We want to diversify our programs further, reach even wider audiences, and contribute to the region’s cultural richness. The journey involves continued innovation and collaboration to make classical music a vibrant and integral part of the Middle East’s cultural landscape.

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