2017 video of Burj Khalifa lit up in Union Jack colours shared as tribute to Queen

This comes after Britain's longest-serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, died on 8 September.

Fact Check

NewsMeter performed a reverse image search of the viral image and found the photo in an article by Hello! magazine from 24 May 2014. The article titled "Manchester attack: World monuments lit up in tribute to victims" read, "In Dubai, a Union Jack was projected onto the Burj Khalifa, which towers some 830 metres tall across the city skyline." Hence, the Burj Khalifa tribute was not for Queen Elizabeth II but for the victims of the Manchester attack.

Taking this as a cue, we looked for videos of the same event on YouTube from 2017. We performed a keyword search on YouTube and found a video published by the verified account of Business Insider. The video had the same visuals as the viral post and was titled "World famous landmarks changed colour and went dark to honour Manchester attack victims."

We also found a report by Khaleej Times from 24 May 2017 with the same photo of Burj Khalifa. It reads, "Dubai's Burj Khalifa lit up in the colours of Britain's Union flag to express solidarity for the Manchester attack yesterday. At least 22 persons, including children, died and 59 were injured in a suicide terror attack that hit Manchester Arena on Monday night just as a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande had ended."

Another keyword search revealed that the iconic Burj Khalifa had paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II on 12 September 2022.

It is evident that the viral image of Burj Khalifa lit up with Britain's Union Jack is from 2017 and was a tribute to the victims of the Manchester terror attack. Hence the claim is misleading.