Doha, Qatar : Qatar Airways will help bring one of the world's best known female artists, Mariah Carey, to Dubai as part of the airline's continuing social commitment to the Gulf region.

Mariah Carey will perform live in Dubai on February 26th 2004 as part of her 'Charm Bracelet' World Tour. This is the second major concert being sponsored by the Gulf's fastest growing airline in Dubai. It had brought leading singer, Craig David, to audiences in the region in October 2003.

"Our major sponsorship of the Mariah Carey concert in Dubai is part of our effort to give back something to the community that has given us the opportunity to become one of the fastest growing airlines in the world," said Qatar Airways' Regional Manager for the Arabian Peninsula Mr Ali Al Rais.

"The Charm Bracelet World Tour of Mariah Carey is our most ambitious and high profile sponsorship to date.

"We are very pleased to support concert in Dubai because it gives Qatar Airways the chance to enrich the region's community life, and gives us the opportunity to replicate the smiles that we deliver to our passengers with our world-class service," Mr Al Rais added.

Mariah Carey - who is billed as the 'The World's Best Selling Female Artist of the Millennium' - will perform on the grounds of Dubai Media City. Seating capacity at the DMC Amphitheatre is being increased to 9,000. Momentum is building up, as Gulf audiences are keen to witness the singing sensation of our times. Mariah Carey has an incredible 15 Number One singles and two Grammy Awards. She is also the only artist to top the charts in each year in the 1990s, and with 'Heartbreaker', she pushed ahead of the Beatles as the artist with the most cumulative weeks spent atop Billboard's Hot 100 Singles.

"We are sure that Mariah Carey will provide us with a 'performance par excellence' on the evening of the 26th of February. We have a spectacular setting for her seven-octave range, that is going to reach into the skies as we have done," said Mr Al Rais.

"We find the Mariah Carey sponsorship very natural to Qatar Airways. Both of us have the same drive, the same ambition and the same quest for excellence that has put both of us at the top of our fields.

"Both of us are also very young and we are confident and sure that on our respective paths, we both shall aspire for and achieve many more peaks," Mr Al Rais added.

Since its relaunch in 1997, Qatar Airways has been rapidly expanding and now covers 48 major destinations worldwide. That trend is being continued as the airline builds a network of 60 destinations by the end of 2005. This year, Doha's National Flag carrier will begin new services to Luxor in Egypt, Istanbul in Turkey, Zurich in Switzerland and Kabul in Afghanistan.

"Like with Mariah Carey, a lot has changed at Qatar Airways too. The airline that was first launched is a very different airline to the one that now reaches into the skies," Mr Al Rais pointed out.