Global music stars including US artists Christina Aguilera and Norah Jones will perform at the closing ceremony of Expo 2020 Dubai on Thursday.

Organisers on Saturday revealed more about the eagerly anticipated event and said children will lead the way as the curtain comes down on the six-month event.

Aguilera, Jones and American cellist Yo-Yo Ma will lead the line-up, while hundreds of children will be in the audience beneath the Al Wasl dome.

The concerts are free to attend for anyone with an Expo ticket and entry is on a first come first served basis, organisers said.

The world’s fair baton will also be passed from Dubai to Expo 2025 Osaka.

Performances from the stars

Aguilera, Jones and Ma will perform on the night and on 20-plus giant screens across the site, including the main stages, Festival Garden and country pavilions.

The evening will begin at 7pm with Mira Singh, the girl who stole the show during the opening ceremony, taking the audience on another journey.

Hundreds of children from across the UAE are to witness the wonders as the country looks to the next 50 years, having celebrated its Golden Jubilee during Expo 2020 Dubai.

Later in the evening, Grammy-winner Ma will play a concert at Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre from 8.45pm. The celebrated Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and pianist Jones will entertain visitors with her own concert on the Jubilee Stage from 9pm, and singer Aguilera will present an extended performance on the Jubilee Stage from 10.45pm.

The show in statistics

The cast of the closing ceremony includes more than 400 professionals and volunteers from 56 countries, with 745 costumes created for the culmination of Expo 2020 Dubai.

Forty members of a UAE-based children’s choir will perform Ishy Bilady, the National Anthem of the UAE, joined by the all-women Firdaus Orchestra, conducted by Yasmina Sabbah.

The ceremony will be streamed live on Virtual Expo and Expo TV. It will remind audiences of some of Al Wasl Plaza’s great moments, including calligraphy poetry in the sky from Emirati poetess Ousha bint Khalifa Al Suwaidi; the falcon from immersive theatrical show Journey of the 50th, which was presented during the UAE’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, and the incredible horse from The Boy and The Horse – a tribute to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.

The show also looks to the future. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence and Commissioner-General of Expo 2020 Dubai will participate in a ceremony that hands the baton over to Osaka in Japan for the next Expo in 2025.

The celebrations will continue throughout the night, with fireworks displays at midnight and 3am.

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Na The Body Issue, ter @xtina a dar a cara é mais do que apropriado. É disso que fala nesta edição que celebra as diferenças, a igualdade e que não fecha os olhos aos eventos mundiais. A Vogue Portugal de março 2022 está disponível em https://t.co/7vQX0f1u8F. pic.twitter.com/3hQ1fevpWa

— Vogue Portugal (@VoguePortugal) March 10, 2022

Christina Aguilera is seen performing at the amfAR Palm Beach 2022 on March 5, 2022.

Christina Aguilera last night performing Beautiful. Almost 20 years of her performing this classic and she still sounds as amazing as ever, the falsetto with vibrato at the end was so pretty. Her microphone stays on! pic.twitter.com/xB02G9Qt30

— Jaden (@JadenLoveLungi) March 6, 2022

Christina Aguilera attends Billboard Women in Music at YouTube Theater on March 02, 2022 in Inglewood, California.

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This is the first of three covers designed by Yam Karkai.

A Letter From the Editorial Director
Women In Music have made huge progress over the past year. Michelle Jubelirer became Capitol Music Group’s first female CEO in the company’s 80-year history. Sherrese Clarke Soares secured $1 billion from private equity giant Apollo to acquire music and entertainment assets through her new investment group, HarbourView Equity Partners. And Golnar Khosrowshahi took her publishing firm, Reservoir Media, public, joining the rare ranks of female CEOs leading publicly traded companies in any sector. But despite these victories, women are still fighting for inclusion, representation, recognition and equal pay at the top of the music business, from recording studios to C-suites.

Could the metaverse be a more welcoming place? As the music world scrambles to prepare for a virtual future, Billboard wanted to shine a light on efforts to ensure that future will be one of equality. So we decided to create a series of special covers for our annual Women in Music issue that showcase non-fungible tokens that Billboard commissioned to honor three iconic female singers, beginning with Christina Aguilera [the second and third NFT covers will launch March 1 and 2].

To do so, we partnered with World of Women, a company co-founded and launched in July by NFT artist Yam Karkai aimed at welcoming women into the digital collectible space, using inclusive and empowering imagery. Karkai’s original collection of 10,000 diverse female avatars were initially priced at .07 ETH apiece, or about $200 at the current exchange rate, but some have traded for hundreds of thousands of dollars on the secondary market, as celebrities from Eva Longoria to Reese Witherspoon have snapped them up and sported them as their own online avatars. The collection has generated over $200 million in trading volume, and the company is now working to support women artists around the globe by promoting their digital art as well.

We’re thrilled to introduce our own NFTs designed by Karkai, which will be auctioned on the NFT marketplace FTX later in March. Some of the proceeds will benefit nonprofit organizations of each cover star’s choosing, and we’ll fly the buyers of these NFTs to Los Angeles for our Women in Music celebration next year, where they will walk the red carpet alongside our star honorees.

We celebrate a broader array of game-changing, cutting-edge artists and executives than ever in this issue, like Doja Cat, Saweetie, Summer Walker, Bonnie Raitt, H.E.R., Phoebe Bridgers, Gabby Barrett, Karol G and our Woman of the Year, Olivia Rodrigo. We’ll need their bold leadership just as much in the metaverse as we do in the world they’ve helped shape so far.

Christina Aguilera will be part of Billboard’s Women In Music event on Wednesday, March 2, in Los Angeles.

In honor of Billboard‘s upcoming Women in Music celebration on March 2, Christina Aguilera joined us for a candid conversation via Twitter Spaces on Wednesday (Feb. 23) where she talked all things music and motherhood.

During her chat with Billboard‘s Leila Cobo, the “Santo” singer also announced her upcoming first-of-its-kind NFT Billboard cover, illustrated by YAM, artist and founder of World of Women, which will be unveiled next week to coincide with the Billboard Women in Music Awards (livestreaming on Twitter starting at 9 p.m. ET on March 2).

“[The cover] is super special,” the chart-topping artist said during the 30-minute conversation. “Combined with Billboard and an incredible artist who does beautiful imagery of women and a really cool take on what that means. I’m so excited to see for the first time along with everyone else.”

Aguilera most recently released the first part of her Spanish project, an EP titled La Fuerza, which comes more than 20 years since her first Spanish-language album, Mi Reflejo. “As an artist you can’t stay stuck. [Trying new things] can be scary and I’m not as confident writing in Spanish as I am in English, but its so special to me. You’re never too old old to learn something new.”

Below, five memorable quotes from Aguilera’s Twitter Space:

The desire to sing in Spanish again 

“I’ve always had it in me. I never stopped singing in Spanish. Whenever the opportunities came about where I was really passionate about a project, I’d go for it. I always say when you grow up with something, if it’s part of your household, my mom was fluent in Spanish, that’s how she met and connected with my dad, who’s from Ecuador. I heard the language so much. I always say, when it’s in you, it never leaves you.”

Her littlest (but biggest) fan 

“Being a mother and wanting to share this process with my children, it was an education within itself; letting them be part of this and moving to Miami for a month and spend time with them in the studio while recording Spanish music. I tell my kids where this music comes from. I don’t listen to my own music because I’m a perfectionist but my daughter when she gets in the car, all she wants to listen to is ‘La Fuerza’ and I’m so excited to get to share this with her. She’s very into it. It’s been well-received by my biggest little fan.”

Embracing motherhood 

“Everyone has a different relationship with their children and what it means to them to be a mom. [As mothers], we are protectors and nurturers, the glue that keeps it together, that’s the main part of La Fuerza. Being a mom also you just want what’s best for them. You don’t want anything to affect them in a negative way. I try to separate these two worlds. I honor and respect my family and our dynamic and making sure they know mommy’s work is just that. I miss my kids a lot when I can’t be with them but I make sure that if I can’t be there for school days to do the little things for them. Making sure that they know they’re safe, loved and secure.”

Tapping Nathy Peluso, Nicki Nicole and Becky G for “Pa’ Mis Muchachas” 

“It’s important to support women and you can take the easy way out sometimes to do what the public will expect, but all of my career I’ve gone for the unexpected. All my career I’ve gone for it doesn’t matter who’s charting. The talented self speaks to me and much of the time that doesn’t include everybody that’s on the charts. Some of that can get to be a bit manufactured. It’s always good energy to work with other women.”

The next chapters in her Spanish project 

“Fans have waited for so long so I wanted to give them surprises throughout the year. The first chapter is ‘La Fuerza’ and each body of work represents a different tone and different mood and a different release of the journey that I’m on as a woman. You start with the strength, and we’re going to be more tender and open up to be a bit more vulnerable with the material in the next chapter and then we’ll close on this healing note. It was very personal to me. I wanted it to come from the heart.”

Christina Aguilera looked sexier than ever when she rocked a plunging red catsuit while on a date with her beau, Matthew Rutler.

Christina Aguilera, 41, is always rocking some sort of sexy outfit and that’s exactly what she did when she went on a date in LA with her partner, Matthew Rutler, on Feb. 7. For the occasion, Christina opted to wear a skintight red latex catsuit with a plunging V-neckline.

Christina’s catsuit revealed ample cleavage while the rest of the one-piece showed off her fabulous figure. The pants of the catsuit were black and she topped her look off with sky-high black leather platform pumps.

As for her glam, the singer had her long, platinum blonde hair down in loose waves with a top knot on the top of her head, decorated with a red flower. A sultry red smokey eye and a dark red lip tied her look together.

Meanwhile, Matthew was dressed in all-black as he wore a T-shirt with skinny jeans, sneakers, and a varsity jacket.

Christina has been loving leather and latex lately and just recently she posted a gorgeous photo of herself staring into the camera while rocking a cool braided hairstyle, bright green eyeshadow, and a plunging top.

She rocked a sexy bright red off-the-shoulder top that was super low-cut and she accessorized with a bunch of different gold huggie hoops and long gold swords that dangled down to her shoulders.

Just a day before, Christina rocked the same glam and hairstyle with another bright red outfit, that was a bit different but just as sexy. She flaunted her fabulous figure in a skintight long-sleeve latest top that had a plunging V-neckline and a zipper down the front.

Christina styled the peplum top with a pair of matching high-waisted latex pants, rectangular red sunglasses, and long, red acrylic nails. She captioned the photo, “Santo ¡sálvame!.”

With 30 years of career, the singer is about to release an album entirely sung in Spanish: ‘I want to pass this connection with my roots to my children’.

Christina Aguilera has sold 75 million albums around the world. Owner of five Grammys, a star on the Walk of Fame and several hits. In her 30-year career, the singer has flirted with pop, rock, soul, jazz and is now back in Latin music.

Between 2019 and 2020, Las Vegas hosted a fixed show by Christina and is now the city she chose to launch her newest project, an album sung entirely in Spanish, which should now come out in 2022.

Despite her Latin roots, Aguilera confesses that singing in Spanish was a challenge.

“I want to pass this connection with my roots to my children, to show them that it’s important to pursue our passions”, he tells Fantástico .
Asked if she has ever looked for inspiration in any Brazilian talent : “I know Anitta! I love innovative artists, who are not afraid of criticism and impose themselves to express themselves freely as artists”.