DUBAI: Lebanese make-up artist and beauty blogger Maya Ahmad is soaking up the sun at US music festival Coachella this week — and giving us serious holiday goals while she’s at it.
The social media star, who has more than one million followers on her Instagram account @themayaahmad, posted a snap of herself at the hugely famous California-based festival wearing distressed denim shorts and a fringed jacket over a cropped black halter neck top.
Ahmad captioned the photograph, “Day 2. Still not over Beyoncé.”
Beyoncé returned spectacularly to the stage Saturday with a joyous, homecoming-themed party at the Coachella festival where she delighted fans with a rare reunion of her former trio, Destiny’s Child, AFP reported.
Before a sea of some 100,000 people in the southern California desert, the pop superstar headlined the second night of the premier global music festival, ending a year-long hiatus from live music as she gave birth to twins.
Beyoncé showed no sign of slowing down after her maternity leave, singing and strutting her stuff for two hours as she led around 100 back-up dancers and musicians.
Her husband, rap mogul Jay-Z, popped up on stage toward the end of her set to join in their song “Deja Vu.” But he turned out to be only a preview of a less routine guest appearance.
With an audio recording of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay “We Should All Be Feminists” allowing Beyoncé a moment to prepare, she re-emerged on stage with the unmistakable silhouette of three figures.
Fellow Destiny’s Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams joined Beyoncé for three of the trio’s songs, including “Say My Name.”
It was their first reunion since Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime show in 2013. The group propelled Beyoncé to stardom but was also beset by internal friction.
On Saturday, Beyoncé referred to her bandmates as her “sisters” — and was also joined on stage by her real sister, Solange Knowles.
Beyoncé made clear from the start that Coachella was about reuniting, with an announcer starting the show by welcoming guests to her “homecoming.”
A school’s worth of brass and string players played from stadium-style stands as Beyoncé entered to a New Orleans-style march. She sported an all-American outfit of tight jean shorts and a collegiate sweatshirt — the Greek letters, of course, starting with “B.”
The superstar is set to return to the stage this coming weekend as the Coachella festival returns with an identical line-up.
Cardi B is also set to return to the stage after a triumphant first performance on Saturday. She was one of the most avidly awaited performers at Coachella, not only because she is rising quickly in hip-hop but because the 25-year-old — engaged to fellow rapper Offset of Migos — recently revealed that she is pregnant.
Despite her visible baby bump, Cardi B briefly squatted to twerk to the beat, comfortably getting back up to finish her dance moves.
The Bronx native has quickly found stardom with unsentimental rhymes about her rough life, AFP noted.
After the hard edges of her breakthrough song “Bodak Yellow,” Cardi B has shown greater musical versatility. Her debut album, “Invasion of Privacy,” brought in energetic, street festival-style horns on the track “I Like It,” which she performed live at Coachella.
Cardi B has demonstrated striking candor about the finances of playing Coachella — arguably the most watched festival in the world, especially this year with Glastonbury in Britain on a scheduled break.
She told satellite radio SiriusXM that she spent $300,000 of her own money to develop a worthy set for Coachella, where she will earn only $140,000.
