How Ronan Keating is raising eyebrows, and NOT in a good way, in Dubai
Former pop star Ronan Keating is among an elite group of ex-pats who have been promoting messages from the Dubai government, including from the ruler of the emirate.
The former Boyzone singer moved to the sun-drenched tax haven last year and since then has been extolling its virtues on social media to fans and followers.
Now he’s reposting messages from its government, which is facing international criticism for jailing people who posted footage of drone or missile debris during recent Iranian attacks on the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Last week, the ruler of Dubai and vice president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched a nationwide initiative called Dubai-it.
Framing it as a cultural and governmental philosophy, he said that ‘to Dubai-it’ is ‘to achieve something extraordinary with excellence in record time’.
The Sheikh announced the initiative across his official social media channels.
Within hours, Keating posted similar content on his own Instagram account, where he has 682,000 followers.
Keating’s apparent support of a government that is continually accused of human rights abuses is bound to raise eyebrows.
However, the singer is no stranger to performing in Dubai or to singing its praises.
Former pop star Ronan Keating is among an elite group of ex-pats who have been promoting messages from the Dubai government
He headlined the Coca-Cola Arena in 2024 and last November performed at Dubai Media City Amphitheatre, after which he gave a glowing interview describing Dubai audiences as ‘just full of energy’.
In January last year, Keating, 45, and his Australian-born wife Storm left their £5million (€5.8million) home in Hertfordshire, England, and moved their entire family to Dubai, enrolling their young children Cooper and Coco in local schools.
Storm documented the move on Instagram, posting images of plush sunbeds on glass balconies, an infinity pool, and the couple’s children eating ice cream on the beach.
‘Dubai Days,’ she wrote. ‘Can’t believe we have been living here for almost two months already.’
Using geolocation data from social media posts by both Storm and Ronan, The Mail On Sunday revealed the couple are living in District One, a hyper-exclusive gated community within Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
The multi-billion-euro development is built around a seven-kilometre man-made crystal lagoon, featuring villas, manicured grounds and private pools.
Properties in District One sell for millions of euros and the community is considered among the most exclusive addresses in the Gulf.
However, beneath the glossy veneer, the construction of District One, which began in 2013 and was completed in 2018, has been slammed by human rights organisations who have documented systemic abuses against the migrant workers who built the development.
Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum delivers a speech during the Founders Memorial event in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019
Human Rights Watch described abuses including wage exploitation, indebtedness to unscrupulous recruiters and working conditions that were ‘hazardous to the point of being deadly’.
Passports of labourers were found to have been confiscated by employers and workers were housed in overcrowded labour camps.
Many arrived on the promise of salaries that never materialised.
Nonetheless, in recent years, Dubai has been running a deliberate and well-funded campaign to attract Western celebrity residents.
In January last year the UAE launched its Creators HQ at the Emirates Towers, a state-backed hub designed to attract 10,000 global influencers to live and work in the emirate.
Within six months, the hub had signed up more than 2,400 members from 147 countries.
It was shortly after this announcement that Keating revealed in an interview with Esquire Middle East that he had decamped to Dubai to set up a creators’ music hub.
The scheme comes with an attendant Golden Visa, offering long-term residency to celebrities, athletes and people of influence.
"What I will never do is give up" – Kimmich rules out international retirement after Germany's World Cup exit
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Germany captain Joshua Kimmich is not considering retiring from international football after Monday's heartbreaking World Cup exit to Paraguay.
"I'll always have the determination to make another attempt. What I will never do is give up," Kimmich told MagentaTV after the match.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe 31-year-old, who was also part of the squads that crashed out in the group stage at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, converted his penalty in the shootout. However, it wasn't enough to prevent another disappointing tournament exit.
"I grew up in Germany watching the national team on television, and it always seemed to be the semifinals or the final. Of course, you want to give today's children, the people, and this generation that same experience. The fact is, we weren't able to give the people back home that," Kimmich said.
According to Kimmich, everyone in the team must take full responsibility for the latest failure.
“It's a real shame, especially at a time when it would do us so much good to have something in Germany we can be proud of. Unfortunately, the national team isn't that right now, and we all share responsibility for it,” he said.
"We have to take responsibility – no one can distance themselves from it. We have to own it, because we, the players who were on the pitch, are the ones who messed it up."
Taylor Swift won over Kelce's skeptical friend in backstage encounter
Taylor Swift won over another new fan in Travis Kelce's friend Taylor Lewan, days before the American power couple are expected to get married at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Swift joined Kelce last week for his annual 'Tight End University' - an event he helps plan for practice and networking with players who play in the position where the Kansas City Chiefs star made his name.
Swift has sprinkled some stardust over the last two events with a brief performance at the concert they host each year and this time, ex-NFL man turned podcast host Lewan got to witness Swift preparing to perform backstage.
Speaking on his popular Bussin' With The Boys podcast, Lewan explained: 'I'll just tell you this, dude - I was kind of into her music when I was younger. I haven't been super into it since then. It is just not my genre.
'The girl is incredible. What a performer. We are sitting backstage for a moment and she's about to go out. She's got a cluster, she's got a gaggle of individuals with her. But she's in the back before she walks out and you can see her just getting in the zone.
'I remember just looking at her being like "it is so cool that somebody who is as successful as she is, as famous as she is, she just handles her business the correct way at all times".
Taylor Swift stunned fans with a surprise performance at Travis Kelce's Tight End University
Swift joined Travis Kelce (left) alongside Claire Kittle, George Kittle, Greg Olsen and Talbot Olsen (L-R) at the opening event of Tight End University on Monday
Bussin' With The Boys host Taylor Lewan was impressed by Swift's performance last week
'And for her to sit back, get in the zone and go out and put on a performance, whether it was three minutes or five minutes, it was a very short amount of time, but the pop from the crowd... everybody in that moment felt like she was singing individually to them. And I thought that was just awesome.'
Swift joined Lainey Wilson on the stage to perform her hit 'Love Story' and dedicated it to Kelce's friend and rival tight end George Kittle, who plays for San Francisco 49ers.
'She probably misses ball!' Lewan joked about the lengthy NFL offseason. 'She misses ball a little bit, dude! But she was awesome. It was just really cool to watch people who are outliers in their craft perform.
'And I thought she is clearly that, the biggest superstar in the world. It is just awesome to see all that going down, all while our boy Trav is just bobbing around, stoked to kind of like be there.'
Swift and Kelce are expected to tie the knot this weekend in New York at the city's most iconic venue.
There were people in the industry who wondered if their plans to marry at MSG were a high-profile decoy but Daily Mail earlier this week shared pictures of equipment getting loaded into the venue, seemingly in preparation for the big day.
It remains to be seen if Lewan is going. He has known Kelce for around 10 years but the guestlist has been kept quiet and those attending have been sworn to secrecy.
And if, as Lewan suggested, Swift is missing football then she doesn't have too much longer to wait.
Kelce's Chiefs team start the season with a Monday Night Football showdown against AFC West rivals Denver Broncos on September 14 at Arrowhead Stadium.
