In a bid to reach out to a new audience, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has signed a five-year deal with Universal Music Group and its joint venture company All The Worlds to produce a series of musical extravaganzas to coincide with Grand Prix races.
The inaugural F1 Rocks will take place in Singapore on September 24 to 26, prior to the F1 Grand Prix on September 27. Well-known Asian and Western stars will appear on the Fort Canning Park stage over three nights. Collectively, the lineup has sold more than 250 million albums and represents a wide variety of musical styles.
'Our remit is to breathe additional glamour into F1, bring in a younger audience, and more female demographic,' says John Simidian, managing partner of All The Worlds, the live events company partly owned by Universal Music.
The first night will showcase Asian stars, with performances by Canto-pop pioneer Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, Taiwanese pop singer A-Mei, hip hop band Da Mouth and indie-crossover band Sodagreen.
The second night will feature rock groups spanning a few decades and will include American blues-rock band ZZ Top, who had their heyday in the 70s and 80s with hits such as La Grange, Gimme All Your Lovin and Sharp Dressed Man, Scottish rock band Simple Minds, who topped the charts in the mid-80s and early 90s, and US rockers No Doubt. The lineup also includes the rock, funk and hip hop band N*E*R*D.
It's been a while since we've heard from ZZ Top, but the bearded trio were recently quoted as saying: 'We're in the midst of celebrating our 40th anniversary together, still doing what we've always done: getting out there on stage and giving the folks some smoking blues, some righteous rock and having a lot of fun while we're at it. To say we're excited about F1 Rocks is a serious understatement. We're totally pumped about it.'