One of the exciting signs that COVID-19 has moved on from the pandemic stage has been the return not only of live music, but of big international acts.
As of this spring, not only do we have the many nostalgia acts – such as The Pixies, Jethro Tull and Deep Purple – that fill stadiums in Israel, but there are big, current hitmakers, like Maluma last month and Justin Bieber in October, and Maroon 5, making its Tel Aviv debut next week.
The LA-based pop-rock group is one of the world’s best-selling musical artists, with record sales similar to contemporaries Adele and Beyoncé and classic rock acts like Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart.
Maroon 5 is clearly just as popular in Israel as it is around the world, since its first Hayarkon Park show on May 9 quickly sold out.
In a really ironic turn of events, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement started a campaign to get Maroon 5 to cancel the concert in “apartheid Israel.”
Instead of calling off the show, the band added another Tel Aviv concert date, on May 10.
The band’s mega-celebrity front man, Adam Levine, posted a video on Instagram last month announcing the added date “because of the incredible response from you guys.”
“Tel Aviv, we f****** love you, we are so pumped. We’ve never been and we are just so excited to get there,” Levine said.
The Tel Aviv concerts come as part of a Middle Eastern jaunt in their world tour, beginning with a performance beside the pyramids at Giza, Egypt, then Abu Dhabi, before heading to Israel – which just shows that another small way the Abraham Accords helped Israelis is that it makes it easier for international acts to bring their tours here. After that, the band returns to North America, where it recently added 13 more dates to the successful tour.
Maroon 5’s 2022 world tour promotes the band’s seventh studio album, Jordi, which came out last year and featured the singles “Memories” and “Beautiful Mistakes” with Megan Thee Stallion.
But this year also marks the 20th anniversary of the band’s smash hit debut album, Songs About Jane, which included songs such as “This Love” and “Harder to Breathe.”
Set lists from previous tour dates show that the Tel Aviv concert will likely feature big hits like “Moves Like Jagger,” “Sunday Morning” and “Sugar.” Another song on the set list is “Girls Like You,” a favorite among Israelis after Gal Gadot danced in the music video.
With the two sold-out shows, there will be tens of thousands of Israelis dancing to Maroon 5’s hits in Hayarkon Park next week.