Music icon Nile Rodgers offers music masterclass to GEMS school’s students

Multiple Grammy Award winning songwriter visits GEMS Dubai American Academy and assessed student performances.

Nile Rodgers, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, a Songwriters Hall of Famer and multiple Grammy Award winning songwriter, composer, producer, arranger, and guitarist, has shared his extraordinary story and wisdom with several hundred bewitched Dubai school students.

As the co-founder of CHIC, Rodgers pioneered a musical revolution that generated chart-topping hits like Le Freak, the biggest selling single in the history of Atlantic Records, Everybody Dance, I Want Your Love, Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) and sparked the advent of hip-hop with Good Times and Rapper’s Delight.

Highlights

• Rodgers pioneered a musical revolution that has spanned successive generations
• Multi-talented Hall of Famer generated chart-topping hits like Le Freak, Good Times
• In visit to GEMS Dubai American Academy (DAA), Rodgers assessed student acts

“What an honour it has been to perform for the legendary Nile Rodgers; it feels like I've been given the music masterclass of a lifetime.

Receiving feedback from Mr Rodgers about my music was an experience that I will forever hold close to my heart. I am truly inspired by this encounter, which will propel me to take more risks with my music and extend myself as a songwriter. I am beyond grateful for having such an opportunity, which marks a pivotal point in my journey as a musician.”

Maya Bishara – 11th Grade Student at DAA

During his visit to GEMS Dubai American Academy (DAA), Rodgers assessed student performers with candid but constructive feedback and wowed an auditorium of teenage admirers from the school with a whistle-stop run-through of his life and times, good and bad.

Afterwards, Rodgers explained why he so valued the visit: “When I was starting out, the people who made the biggest impression on me were people who came in and gave proper lectures or just came in and gave quick advice. But hearing it from people who are in the thick of it is very important because it’s easy to get frustrated. And when you hear from people who say, ‘stick to it, believe in what you’re doing’, it keeps you going through that frustration.”