06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
This country's highway ‘plays' Beethoven's Ninth Symphony when you drive over it
It's an 'Ode to Joyriding.'
Drivers in one stretch of highway in the United Arab Emirates are in for a musical treat when they cruise over cleverly-installed rumble strips — a rendition of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
The reason is the spacing of the strips on a half-mile section in the right hand lane of the E84 highway in Fujairah, with the grooves sounding out the notes to the famed composer's masterpiece.
A stretch of a highway in the United Arab Emirates plays Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony when you drive over rumble strips.
Photo by FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images
The move is part of 'Street of Music,' an international project that seeks to promote the arts.
'We wanted this project to be in our country, Ali Obaid Al Hefaiti, director of the Fujairah Fine Arts Academy in the UAM, which spearheaded the hummable highway idea.
'I think that the project is focused on spreading the art culture,' Al Hefaiti told the Associated Press. 'The combination of music in our lives and our normal lives.'
Fujairah installed the Beethoven lane as part of the 'Street of Music' program to promote the arts.
Photo by UniversalBeethoven's Ninth Symphony, first performed in 1824, is one of the German-born composer's most recognizable works. Its final movement, 'Ode to Joy,' is widely performed to this day and remains a staple in countless television ads and film soundtracks over the years.
With Post wires
