Ronan Keating has revealed what it was really like to party with Kendall Jenner and Jay-Z at the the model and reality star’s pool party in Dubai.
The Irish singer-songwriter, 47, and wife Storm, 42,were invited last year to the no-expense spared launch of uber luxurious hotel Atlantis the Royal, including a private performance by Beyoncé.
After the once-in-a-lifetime gig, they found themselves at Jenner’s swanky 818 Tequila party at rooftop bar Cloud 22, which is only accessible via one lift in the whole hotel and features a stunning infinity pool overlooking the Arabian Gulf.
While Keating does have a link to Jenner’s older half-sister Kim Kardashian having both lent their voices to 2021 animated film PAW Patrol: The Movie, he says don’t expect to see him on an episode of The Kardashians any time soon.
“To be honest I didn’t even know it was her party until we saw her,” he told the Standard with a laugh of the soirée, which was also attended by Kardashian’s BFF Jonathan Cheban.
“We ended up in Jay-Z’s party after that. It was a fun night, good times!
“He was great, he was very approachable and just kind of hanging out with everybody and so down to earth,” the dad-of-five enthused.
Meanwhile on these shores, Keating is currently gearing up to play Kew the Music in London’s Kew Gardens on July 10 with special guests Lucy Spraggan and Tom Speight.
“I’m very much looking forward to it, it’s my only sort of southern show in the UK this year,” he said. “Everything else I’m doing is Scottish/Midlands based, so it’s nice to be doing one show down in the south and during the summer and all of the festivals.
“The last time I did Kew Gardens was with Boyzone - I want to say 2018 maybe? And it was brilliant. It’s an amazing venue and right plump in the middle of London. It’s a gorgeous venue,” he continued.
“I think my setlist lends its self very well to that kind of atmosphere,” he noted, promising plenty of “the hits” such as When You Say Nothing At All and Life Is A Rollercoaster, along with a good helping of Boyzone standards thrown in for good measure.
Adding: “I did an outdoor show recently and half-way through the heavens opened up, so you’re kind of at the mercy of the weather here in the UK which is a little bit more of an uncertainty, but it’s still a lot of fun.”
Keating recently announced that he is stepping down after seven years next month from hosting his Magic Breakfast radio show with Harriet Scott.
While he says he will be sad to go, he feels the time is right.
“I’ve decided to stand down because it has been hard to balance making music and being creative and all of that alongside doing radio. I want to get back to doing that full-time. When I leave Magic at 10am in the morning it’s pretty exhausting, you know, you give four hours of yourself, you give all of that energy and the rest of the day you’re exhausted. Even when you take a holiday from it, you’re trying to catch up on yourself for a couple of weeks.
“For me, I need a bit of time off and then I need to go and focus on writing music and continuing my live performances and so on.”
He doesn’t intend to hang up his radio mic completely however.
“I don’t want to leave the Magic family, I love the team and everyone there and I’m not going to walk away from it but I need to take a break from it for a while and think about what I can give Magic. Maybe on a weekend basis,” he explained.
“I’ve learnt so much about it from the other side of the desk where I’d been for 25 years beforehand to now be the interviewer and to be the broadcaster. It has been incredible.”
When drawn on who has been his favourite interviewee to-date, the self-confessed James Bond fan doesn’t have to think too long.
“For me its been the actors because I’m a musician and I work in that industry. The actors along the way like Daniel Craig. I’m a big fan of James Bond, things like that we would rarely cross paths, [but] they have been the little treat for me, you know, Hollywood legends.”
Ronan Keating will play Kew the Music 2024 on 10th July, as part of the annual week-long festival of picnic concerts, tickets are available at kewthemusic.org
