The amazing city oil built

WHETHER Michael Jackson knew it or not, he had a huge following in the Arabian desert.

Traditionally conformist Arabs might appear an unlikely fan base for the eccentric singer, but the shared experience of ludicrous wealth transcended such cultural divides.

“He’s more like them than any other person alive,” an acquaintance tells author, Jo Tatchell, before Jackson’s death, citing the preposterously palatial compounds in which the oil-rich super-elite of Abu Dhabi reside.