Two reasons why Ronan Keating is raising eyebrows - and NOT in a good way - as he, wife Storm and their young family settle into elitist compound life in the controversial tax haven of Dubai

Former pop star is among an elite group of ex-pats who have been promoting messages from the government, including from the ruler of the emirate.

The former singer moved to the sun-drenched tax haven last year and since then has been extolling its virtues on social media.

Now he’s reposting messages from the regime in Dubai, which faced 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.

He headlined the Coca-Cola Arena in 2024 and, in November 2025, 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 MoS can reveal 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.

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 2025, 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.